»» BURNTONB' 

BOOK STORE, 
No. 296 Bow«rT, 

?rn, York. 



\ LIBRARY OF CONOR!' SS, f 



\ UNITED .STATES OF AMERICA. \ 



THE SAINTS OF 



LEGENDARY 




HISTORY OF IRELAND 



L. TACHET DE BARNETAL, 

PROFESSOR m THE LYCEXm AT DOUAT. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 

BY 

JOHN GILMARY SHEA. 



« In {HE Caxhouc ssnss, the v&assfD is ths lives of thx SAOna." 



BOSTON : 
PATRICK DONAHOE, 

23 FRANKLIN STREET, 

1857, 




$=\ 






-»f^.<^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

PATRICK DONAHOE, 

In the Clerk'a Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



ELECTBOTTPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY, 



PREFACE. 



The study of Irish histoiy finds more votaries now ; the 
treasures long locked up in manuscript are now beginning to 
be presented to the reading public ; but a prejudice due to the 
rationalistic spirit of the last century weighs on the early 
lives of the Irish saints. Most frequently they are spoken of 
only with contempt. Moore, in his History of Ireland, made 
a feeble vindication, sheltering his rashness under the names 
of a Gibbon and a Montesquieu : the writer of the following 
pages has done more ; he has drawn from them pictures full 
of interest and beauty. He views the whole legend as a 
Christian artist, not as an antiquarian or an historian. The 
credibility -of accounts does not enter into his sphere; he 
takes up any that suits the woof of the tapestry which he 
weaves, and which we trust our readers will find as pleasing 
as we have done. 

In giving it an English dress, the translator has indulged 
the hope that it may lead to a series of lives of early Irish 
saints similar to that published a few years since in England, 
on the English saints. Rashly, perhaps, he is himself en- 
gaged on a Life of St. Patrick, which he hopes soon to com- 
plete, in spite of the difficulty of obtaining here works on 
the early church history of Ireland. 

(3) 



4- Preface. 

The numerous miracles in the old Lives caused them to lose 
favor in the last century ; but, as Barneval remarks, the mira- 
cles of the Irish saints are not matters of faith ; we may ex- 
amine and discuss them. Some may be exaggerations, some 
inventions of local pride ; but it is a most erroneous idea to 
suppose them unexampled in more ftcent times. So far as 
my reading has gone, there are few miracles in the lives of 
the Irish saints more extraordinary than those of St. Vincent 
Ferrier, St. Philip Neri, St. Francis of Hieronymo, Blessed 
Peter Claver, Blessed Sebastian de la Aparicion, or many 
others, whose biographies may be found in the series of Lives 
of Modern Saints. 

If our ancestors, prior to the last century, erred by their 
credulity, those of the last most surely did by their incredu- 
lity ; and what picture can be more false than Lives of thau- 
maturgi Kke St. Patrick and St. Bridget, — and thaumaturgi 
they were by the unanimous voice of history, — when those 
Lives record not a single miracle? 

The result of this incredulous tone, this sneering at mira- 
cles, had been highly detrimental to Catholic piety. We 
boast of our early saints, we glory in them ; but rarely, most 
rarely, do we invoke them, or solicit the favors of Heaven 
through their hands. 

With these few remarks on the early Lives from which 
Barneval drew his pages, we commend his book, as a most 
graceful and interesting picture of early Christianity in Ire- 
land. His rich, exuberant style, his cultivated imagination, 
and graceful narrative, give a charm to the pictures which 
he presents — pictures which will be new to many ; which 
will soon be, let us hope, familiar to most. 

John Gilmary Shea. 
New York, August 1, 1857. 



TABLE OF CHAPTERS. 



Chapter Page 

To THE Readeb. ...... 7 

I. — Greek and Roman Traditions as to Ireland. . 13 

II. — Irish Traditions befoue Christianity. . . 17 

III. — Christianity in Ireland before St. Patrick. . 22 

IV. — St. Patrick. ...... 27 

V. — St. Patrick's Companions. .... 40 

VI. — The Saints and the Princes. . . . .45 

VII. — The Saints and the People. ... 61 

VIII. — St. Bridget. ...... 67 

IX. — The Saints and the "Women. . . .74 

X. — The Saints and the "Women ^- (Continued.) . 80 

XI. — General State of Manners in Ireland, and the 

Influence of the Saints. ... 87 

XII. — The Irish Church after St. Patrick. . . 104 

XIII. — General View of the Monastic Movement in 

Ireland. ...... Ill 

XIV. — Enda and Fanchea 123 

XV. — COLUMBKILL 128 

XVI. — The Saints and the Poets. . . . .138 

XVII. — Prophecies and Visions. .... 145 

XVIII. ~ St. FuRSEY. . . 4- • . • . . 156 

1* (5) 



# 
6 Table OF Chapters. 

Chapter Page 

XIX. — Labors of the Church. — Studies in Ireland. . 173 

XX. — Exterior Movement. — Travellers. . . 186 

XXI. — The Pilgrims. — The Story of Arculphus. . .192 

XXII. — The Pilgrims : An Irish Account. . . 199 

XXIII. — St. Brendan's Voyage. . . . .210 

XXIV. -— Strangers in Ireland. . . . . 225 
XXV. •— Irish Masters abroad. .... 232 

XXVI. — St. Columban. . . . . .246 

XXVII. — The Irish Missionaries. . . . .^69 

XXVIII. — ■ The Irish Legend abroad. . . .285 

XXIX. — Observation on the Irish Legend. . . . 298 



TO THE HEADER 



These pages do not deserve a preface, and I am not 
called upon to rewrite my book here. Moreover, these 
pages are not properly a book, and I hesitate to offer 
them to the public. It is neither literature nor history, 
neither erudition nor philosophy ; it is simply the read- 
ing of an ignorant and curious student ; it is, if you 
will, an abridgment of the Irish legend. 

Of late, the word legend has come in vogue, and is 
used for every thing. In the Catholic sense, the legend 
is the Lives of the Saints. The story of Roland and 
Arthur is no more a legend than that of (Edipus; 
Achilles, or ^neas. Our subject then is the saints of 
Ireland. 

The lives of the saints have long been favorite 
reading. For fifteen centuries it was Christian and 
popular ; it took the place of the Bible ; it dispensed 
with theology and sermons ; children, women, men, 
sought in the practices of the saints the ideal of good 
and the lesson of duty. In our days it has become pro- 

(7) 



8 To THE Reader. 

fane and learned ; it forms a complement to annals and 
chronicles, and historians find in it materials to restore 
the past, with its monuments and personages. 

But books — some books especially — resemble those 
paintings which may be regarded under different aspects, 
and which, in each point of view, show different objects. 
In these edifying and instructive histories there is some- 
thing besides morals and history. 

The monks who wrote them sought to edify and to 
instruct. Had they no other object? One thing is 
certain ; the miraculous, the romantic, the poetic, enter 
largely into their narrative. Faith and imagination, 
moreover, scarcely go without each other : the imagina- 
tion relies on faith, and faith solicits the imagination. 

This poetic, marvellous, and half literary element ren- 
dered these narratives popular. In the seventeenth 
century, when reason became severe, when, even in the 
bosom of Catholicity, the worship of reason was inau- 
gurated, men attacked the Legend. The Bollandists 
soon criticised it, and the Benedictines expurgated it. 
It scandalized the incredulous a little less, perhaps ; 
perhaps, too, it 'edified the faithful less. What the 
learned ridicule or proscribe, what the erudite neglect 
or despise, what even litterateurs disdain, is precisely 
what I have sought in preference. 

I shall not speak of the charm which I have found in 
the company of the saints, the graces which I have found 
in the virgins of Ireland. The public is so used to 



To THE Reader. 9 

this kind of confidence, that it guesses it in a moment. 
There is almost always an intercourse, shorter or longer, 
between an author and his personages — a connection 
more or less intimate, a sympathy more or less impas- 
sioned ; and the book is very often only the unstudied 
avowal, the indiscreet revelation, of this attachment. 
In this affection there is at times much illusion, and to 
betray the attachment is not to inspire others with it. 
Each reader has his predilections, and it is idle to ex- 
pect him to embrace all that is proposed or relish all 
that is offered. 

The personages whom we are about to see do not 
doubt as to their slight chance of success ; they dare 
not hope to succeed in the world on which they venture. 
They are, take it all in all, beings of another world, and 
their ordinary place is in martyrologies and the margin 
of missals. They doubtless desire to be agreeable, but 
they cannot dispense with being edifying ; they are 
above all saints, and many bear an austere countenance. 
Nevertheless, let us add, that their history may give, 
besides a poetic charm and a religious attractiveness, 
another interest still ; they mingle in grave events ; their 
lives are complicated with serious questions. The mi- 
raculous account sometimes conceals an historic sense ; 
instructive and curious facts are recognized under the 
legendary form, and it is always easy to separate them 
from the symbol. 

In the abridgment of the Irish legend, two short 



10 To THE Reader. 

chapters recall some ancient traditions to prelude it. 
The legend itself is divided into three principal parts : 
the conversion of Ireland, the life of the Irish church 
at home, its history abroad. The last two chapters are 
only an observation, a question suggested by the perusal 
of the legend. 

I have stopped at the time of the crusades. Except 
a few rare extracts from the compilation of John of 
Tynemouth, in the fourteenth century, but which bear 
an air of originality and antiquity, I have employed 
in the text of the legend only those who, according to 
the greatest authorities, — the Bollandists, Mabillon, and 
the Benedictines, Colgan, Usher, Messingham, Ware, 
<fec., — are certainly or probably anterior to that epoch. 
Up to this moment, then, I have followed the legend. 

In these narratives the legend and history often vary 
sadly ; at other times they approach ; frequently they 
are confounded. The reader will doubtless be able to 
distinguish and recognize each ; it is enough for me to 
awaken his attention, and at the same time, in the name 
of these old biographers, to appeal to his good will. 

A~ single word, now, in favor of tha author. I have 
given time and pains to this task ; I have traversed 
huge works, and read many a long volume ; I have seen 
much science, and encountered men of vast erudition ; 
but my writing will not show it. I must then, at least, 
protest that I have no more pretension to science than 
the obscurest monk, whose secretary I undertake to be. 



To THE Reader. 11 

Should the volume fall into the hands of the learaed, I 
humbly beg them to excuse my faults. 

A monk of Bobbio said, " I write through obedience, 
and for fear of being beaten." Few authors have so 
good an excuse. Yet they may deserve indulgence if 
they sincerely avow their incompetence ; they will then 
obtain pardon for their sincerity, nay, for their very 
incompetence. 

I might allege also the personal interest that has led 
me to the study. " One of the reasons that induce me 
to write," says Stanihurst to Plunkett, in addressing his 
work on Ireland to him, " is, that I have the honor of 
belonging to the Barnwells, whose career in Irish his- 
tory has always been so honorable ; and for the same 
reason you will doubtless welcome my book, for you too 
belong to their family." But this consideration, which 
holds as good for me as for Stanihurst and Plunkett, 
may be a matter of indifference to the public. That 
a family should be exiled from Ireland for its Catholic 
faith, and fidelity to the sovereign, and that there 
remains in its descendants, after the lapse of two centu- 
ries, love of Ireland in their soul, and in their veins 
something of Irish blood and instinct, is perfectly natu- 
ral. To enter into these family feelings and sympathies 
of origin, it is not enough to understand them. My 
readers must become, as they read, Irish in imagination 
and heart. This, talent alone in the author can effect, 
and I do not pretend to have succeeded. 



12 To THE Reader. 

But the traditions of the Irish legend have, it seems 
to me, an interest and a charm in themselves which 
cannot entirely disappear in the clumsiest hand. There 
will remain enough, I hope, in my narrative, to make 
the work 'and its author find favor in the eyes of 
the public. 



LEGENDARY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

GEEEK AND ROMAN TRADITIONS AS TO IRELAND. 

The Romans met the Scots in Britain. Long before 
they had planted stable colonies in the northern cantons, 
the warriors of the great isle of the west, crossing the 
sea in their hide-bound osier barks, had constantly 
ravaged the British provinces, and more than once the 
legions had to drive them from the province which 
they came to protect.* Agricola even seems to have 
thought, for a moment, of crossing the Irish Sea ; and 
his troops deployed along the shore in a menacing 
attitude. But Agricola was recalled. The Romans 
remained on the defensive ; the Scots of Erin, in spite 
of bloody lessons, returned more than once. When they 
met the legions, lerne indeed " mourned her piles of 
children slain ; " f but the Roman foot never pressed the 
green soil of the sacred isle. 

The Romans, then, never saw Ireland : nor did the 
Greeks know it better. The merchants who had traded 



* Tacitus, Agricola, 24. f Claudian, De IV. Cons. Honorii. 

2 (13) 



14 Legendary History 

in these parts, the lieutenants or prsetors who had com- 
manded in the vicinity, doubtless carried back more 
accurate notions ; but on reading most authors, it 
would seem that Ulysses and Homer alone had known 
these distant regions. Hear Avienus ! " The Sea of the 
(Estrymnides is a strange sea, with shallow waters, 
thick, and heavy waves, through which sea monsters 
crawl ; not a breath there fills the sail of the ship im- 
prisoned in the tall sea plants."* It is the extremity of 
the world and the Sea of the Cimmerians. 

Demetrius relates that this sea is studded with count- 
less desert islands, devoted to the divinity and heroes.f 
He wished to visit one. Scarcely had he touched the 
shore when the air was troubled ; the winds, the tempest, 
broke loose with fearful prodigies ; globes of fires trav- 
ersed earth and air. They were, he was told, signs which 
announced the death of a being superior to humanity. 
Not far off, on another isle, adds Demetrius, Saturn was 
held captive in the custody of Briareus. Was it not in 
Caledonia, say some, was it not in Ireland, say others, 
that Ulysses evoked the shades ? Was not this attested 
by an inscription engraven on the rocks ? :|: 

So when, in the fifth century, Alecto, for the last time, 
perhaps, left the shades of Tenarus,§ it was there that 
the subterranean way opened that brought her to the 
light. 

Seven hundred years after, when a Greek, a gramma- 
rian of Constantinople, turned his eyes to the misty 
horizon of the north-west, he seemed still to see the 
bark of Ulysses, and the shady realm of the dead. 



* Ora maritima, 120. % Solinus, c. 25. 

t Plutarch, Orac. § Claud, in Ruf. i. 123. 



Of Ireland. 15 

" Thither," he says, " go the souls of the dead. Oppo- 
site Britain, the shores of the ocean are inhabited by a 
nation of fishermen subject to the Franks. They pay 
no tribute, but they transport the souls of the dead. 
While asleep in their houses at night, they hear a noise 
at the door ; a voice calls them to work. They arise, 
go to the shore, ignorant what power they obey ; they 
find barks prepared, but not their own. They set out ; 
no one is with them, yet the bark is heavy. They 
reached the Isle of Britain ; in an instant a long day's 
voyage is made. They see no one disembark, but they 
hear voices ; the invisible passengers are welcomed, 
called by name, addressed as father, mother, or called 
from their trade. Then the fishermen return, and on 
their homeward way their lightened barks fly still more 
rapidly." ^ 

Yet Ireland lost little on being left enveloped in the 
fantastic clouds of Homeric poesy. If then, as now,t 
she shone like an emerald amid the ocean, — if her dense 
forests and rich fields, in default of birds and bees, fed 
countless herds of fattened kine, — her people were fierce, 
rude, and savage. " They are a harsh race," says So- 
linus ; " they drink the blood of the conquered ; they 
stain their faces with it. When a male child comes into 
the world, it is on the point of a sword that the mother 
offers it its first food ; and the first hope of a mother's 
heart, the first prayer of a mother's lips, is, that her 
child may die in battle, amid the clash of arms. No 
virtue, no moral law, exists ; justice and injustice are 
not distinguishable." 

Yet Solinus does not say all ; for Pomponius Mela, 

* Tzetzes, Chiliad, viii. 218. t Solinus, 25. 



16 Legendary History 

Strabo, St. Jerome, believed them cannibals. But So- 
linus may have been misinformed ; and the idea formed 
of the Scots does not correspond with what the Irish 
relate of their ancestors. If we are to believe their 
most authentic historians * the Scoto-Milesians were bar- 
barous-only to their enemies, and the interior of the 
island would have presented to a peaceful and thought- 
ful traveller the spectacle of a regular, enlightened, 
powerful, happy, warlike, and hospitable society. 

Yet it is not our task to give either the satire or the 
apology of ancient Ireland, nor its history. We are not 
to reproduce or correct, with Keating, the story of the 
bards and the annals of the assemblies of Teamor. We 
will listen to the monastic biographers or chroniclers ; 
we wish to know what they relate ; we will listen to 
them, for the traditions and testimony of antiquity have 
been but a preamble to their story. 

♦ McGeoghegan, History of Ireland. 



Of Ireland; 17 



CHAPTER II. 

« 

lEISH TRADITIONS BEFORE CHRISTIANITY. 

Patrick * one day, in the country of Dicfil, came to a 
tomb of wonderful width and prodigious length. His 
disciples and all who followed him stopped ; the tomb 
was measured ; it was thirty feet long. " Must we be- 
lieve," they asked, " that there were ever men so 
large ? " " If you choose," replied Patrick, " we shall 
see." And as they expressed a great desire, the apostle 
struck with his staff the head of the tomb, tra,ced the 
sign of the cross, and the sepulchre opened. And the 
man who slept there, arising in his gigantic stature, ex- 
claimed to Patrick, " I thank thee, good and holy man, 
for thou hast for a moment suspended my evils and my 
sorrows." At the same time he shed bitter tears. " May 
I not go with you ? " said he. " No," said the saint ; 
" thy aspect would strike too great terror in man. 
Rather, believe in the God of heaven, receive the bap- 
tism of the Lord, and return to thy grave." Patrick 
pronounced the sacred words of the Pater and the 
Creed ; the man repeated them after him ; in the name 
of the Trinity he was thrice plunged into a deep water ; 
and then, with a soul full of joy, he lay down in his 
tomb, and reposed in peace. 

Such were the first inhabitants of Ireland and the 
neighboring countries ; for we find them too in Ar- 

* Elvod. Probus, Vita Patriciic 

2* 



18 Legendary History 

morica ; and the country of Memthor, where St. Patrick 
was born, had once been inhabited by them.* Whence 
came they ? What mighty ships had borne them to 
these lands ? Had they marched in the sea like the giant 
of Sicily ? Did they spring from the earth like the 
race whose history the ancient Greeks relate? Or 
were they, perchance, an antediluvian relic, a tribe that 
escaped the deluge. We might think so ; for the sons 
of Noe, the hardy and rapid voyagers, hastened in 
vain ; they came after them. A struggle ensued ; but 
the new race of Japhet ever triumphed. Such was the 
result in Ireland. Only one of the giants escaped,! 
according to some accounts ; he was to await the coming 
of St. Patrick, and receive baptism from him. He it 
was, who, sole faithful witness of ancient deeds and past 
generations, taught the holy apostle the whole history 
of ancient Ireland. 

The Irish soil seemed, moreover, to repulse the human 
race.J Thrice, so to say, it devoured its inhabitants ;§ 
three emigrations perished there ; and the last comers, 
the Heberians, who were to remain as masters, well nigh 
disappeared. 

A year had passed since the Heberians landed on the 
shores of the island, to which they had given a name 
destined to recall their Iberian fatherland ; when, lo, they 
behold something like a tower rising amidst the sea ; 
it was transparent as crystal, and on its battlements 
armed warriors kept the watch. The Heberians .ad- 
dressed them ; but the strangers, motionless, answered 
not. The Heberians at once launched their barks, and 



* Elvod. Probus, Vita Patricii. 

t Giraldus Cambrensis, Topog. Hiberniae. 

X Nennius, § 13. § Giraldus Cambrensis. 



Op Ireland. 19 

assailed the enemy in his fortress. It crumbled on them, 
and the sea ingulfed them. Thirty vessels had borne 
them from Heberia ; all, men and women, had rushed 
on the vessels to meet the enemy ; one had happily been 
driven on the shore, and its crew, left on land, survived 
the disaster which they had witnessed."^ 

We find elsewhere that Ireland was not defended by 
giants merely ; another race, another power, was estab- 
lished there — the magical power, the race of enchanter.^.. 
The giants annihilated, magic remained ; it persisted 
under various names and various forms, and we find it 
throughout the history of Christian Ireland. 

Early, doubtless, and as soon as the Irish had allowed 
their primitive knowledge of the true God to be ob- 
scured, magic contracted its ordinary union with the 
false religion. And had not, too, their ancestors inhab- 
ited Egypt, that great school of occult science and sym- 
bolical idolatry? The country was filled at the same 
time with idols and prodigies. 

At Magh-Sleacht,t Crom-Cruach was adored ; atYis- 
neach and at Tlachtgha twice a year the sacred fire was 
kindled in honor of Baal. St. Patrick found King 
Laogaire adoring Kean-Croithi,:f the chief of the gods. 
At Clogher, an inspired stone gave forth oracles, and 
had been overlaid with gold by a grateful people. 
The Lia Fail, or stone of destiny, figured in the conse- 
cration of kings, and emitted prophetic sounds when it 
served as their throne on the day of the coronation. 

There was a fountain § in Momonia (Munster) which 
no hand could touch, no eye could see, without Heaven's 

* Nennius. 

t "Ware, De Hiberni Antiquit. (Annals, 4 Mag. A. M. 3656.) 

X Jocelyn, Vita Patricii, cap. 56. § Geraldus Cambrensis. 



20 Legendary History 

pouring down on the whole province torrents that would 
overwhelm it. Elsewhere a fantastic island alarmed the 
neighboring countries by its sudden appearance and dis- 
appearance ; to render it stationary, red hot arrows had 
to be hurled into its bosom ; for an old man had taught 
that fire is the enemy of enchantment, and destroys the 
work of magic. 

Such were the powers that manifested themselves 
in Ireland, and* the mysteries into which the Druids 
initiated their pupils. It was thus that Lugaicmail 
struggled for three days with prodigies, against St. 
Patrick ; * that Caplis and Caplid for three days pre- 
vented the sun from shining on Irish earth ; how Bro- 
ichan let loose the winds and aroused the waves to stop 
the apostle of the Picts.f 

Such was pagan Ireland. But we must say that the 
authors whom we follow have given us very incomplete 
ideas as to this subject. This perhaps is due to two 
causes. 

In the first place, Christianity introduced a new lan- 
guage and a new alphabet. If the Latin did not con- 
sign the Gaelic to oblivion, if Roman letters did not 
prevent the use of a more or less national alphabet, it 
caused its neglect, and in all probability proscribed the 
sacred druidical writing, the ogham, with its simple, 
abrupt, and bristling lines, by which, in the remotest 
times, the Druids and bards had preserved and trans- 
mitted some of the knowledge of which they were the 
guardians. Long after were they doubtless read, long 
employed ; and the parchment read | by Ware, had not, 
we are to believe, been written before the Christian 

* Elv. Probus. Jocelyn, Vita Patricii. f Adamnan, Vita Columbkill. 
X De Hibem. Autiquitat. p. 11. 



Op Ireland. 21 

epoch. But the ogham was at last to disappear, and 
at the same time, and with it, were in a great measure 
effaced the reminiscences of Irish antiquity. 

Again, — and this is more important, — Christianity 
brought to Ireland the germ of new ideas, new traditions, . 
new legends. They mingled with * or replaced the old. 
This operation of superposition, or amalgam, may be 
observed in the question of origin, and be easily fol- 
lowed. The work of Nennius went through the hands 
of three authors, each contributing his own part ; the 
national tradition, the Roman tradition, and the biblical 
tradition, are frequently confronted, and the falsifier is 
so simple, the falsification so naive, that nothing is more 
easy than to separate the three texts, and distinguish 
the three histories. But it is not so always, and in the 
poetic and legendary part it is sometimes difi&cult to dis- 
cern with certainty pagan antiquity and mediaeval Chris- 
tianity, the marvels of the magicians, and the marvels 
of the monks. 

* The incident which opens the chapter is an example. 



22 Legendaey History 



CHAPTER III. 

CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK, 

CoNARE THE Great * still held the monarchy of Ire- 
land ; he was closing a long and happy reign ; peace 
and abundance had been universal ; there, too, it was 
the Augustan age ; peace had extended to the remotest 
countries of the world for the coming of the Messias. 
Christ, in fact, was born, living, and dying then in a 
corner of Judea. 

Ireland soon learned the wonders of his mission, and 
the mournful scenes of Calvary, which one of her chil- 
dren had witnessed. This was Conall Kearnach, a fa- 
mous athlete. Long had he rambled over the world, 
every where trying his strength, and every where tri- 
umphing ; he at last arrived in Palestine, and was at Je- 
rusalem at the moment of the passion. On his return, 
he related to the King of Ultonia t what he had learned, 
what he had seen of that monstrous sacrifice, where the 
innocent victim had been slain like a lamb. At this 
story, King Conchobar groaned, shuddered, and waxed 
wroth ; then his anger burst fort;h ; he cried vengeance 
against the impious murderers ; had he been there, that 
ungrateful nation should have deeply rued their cruel in- 
gratitude! And as his imagination became more in- 
flamed against the butchers, he drew his sword and rushed 

* McGeoghegan, ch. "vi. f Ulster. 



Of Ireland. 23 

on the trees and bushes around him, cutting and slashing 
in fury, swearing that so would he have treated the mur- 
derers, the assassins, whose guilty hands had been raised 
against his Prince and his Lord. 

Prophecies, moreover, had announced this great event. 
Why should not Bacrach, the Druid, have revealed the 
coming of Christ, when, four centuries later, others fore- 
told the coming of Patrick, and the effects of his preach- 
ing. 

Ireland had then already received the first germ of 
Christianity ; and if we are to believe not only popular 
legends, but certain ecclesiastical traditions, it was soon 
visited by apostles, as eloquent, doubtless, and surely bet- 
ter instructed than the athlete of Ultonia. 

It seems even, on comparing the testimony, that the 
first missionaries of Christ strove for the honor of evan- 
gelizing these unknown and distant isles, and that each 
hastened there, fearing that they should be overlooked. 
Aristobulus, brother of St. Barnaby, Simeon Zelotes, 
James, the son of "Zebedee, with Salome, his mother, Tim- 
othy, the beloved disciple of St. Paul, Simeon the Cana- 
naean, appeared in the British Isles, and some of them 
died there. We must not count Joseph of Arimathea, 
if it be true, as Usher thinks, that he came only with 
William the Conqueror. But St. Paul himself, St. Peter 
too, as if to lay with their own hands the limits of 
Christendom, came, converted many tribes, built churches, 
ordained priests and bishops. It is surely needless to 
adduce authorities for all this. 

The divine seed fell on a generous soil. The harvest 
did not delay ; and if not abundant at first, it showed at 
least what might be expected in no distant future. When 
we might ask whether Ireland had yet heard the name 



24 Legendary, History 

of Christ, she had already sent afar her martyrs, her 
doctors, her bishops. These were the first fruits of her 
church ; and when, in the twelfth century, an Anglo- 
Norman priest asked the Irish clergy where their mar- 
tyrs and confessors were, the Bishop of Cashel, in order 
to answer >him, had but to open the first pages of the 
Martyrology. 

Thus, in the first century, Mansuetus founded the epis- 
copal see of Toul, and Beatus evangelized the Swiss. 

Thus, in the second century, Cataldus went forth to 
teach in Italy, and became bishop of Tarentum, while 
at the same time his brother became bishop of Lupi. 

Thus, in the third century, Mello inaugurates by his 
episcopate the hisftory of the church of Rouen. 

Thus, in the fourth century, Eucharius left his native 
isle, with his family and thirty-three disciples, and be- 
came bishop of Toul ; and Eucharius, Eliphius, his 
brother, Monna, Libaria, and Susanna, his sisters, suc- 
cessively sufi'ered martyrdom." 

At Tarentum, Cataldus left deep traces in the memory 
of the people.! A statue of the size of life was made 
of solid silver, bearing the crosier and mitre, and en- 
closing in the head the skull of the holy prelate. Les- 
sons of his life found place in the Roman office ; his life 
was read in choir. In 1492, amid the great events 
which raised up a Savonarola, and kept Italy in expecta- 
tion, the Tarentines remembered the Irish prelate ; a 
prophecy was discovered, engraved on leaden plates, 
predicting the misfortunes and death of King Ferdinand 
of Arragon ; it was placed before the eyes of the prince, 
and he expired suddenly. The history of St. Cataldus 

* Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum, 16 Oct. 
t Usher, Antiq. Ecclesiae Britanni, 751. 



Of Ireland. 25 

was taken up again in the seventeenth century, recounted 
in prose, chanted in verse in a work composed and en- 
titled, like an epic, the Caialdiade. 

AVhere were these new pastors formed? In the very 
heart of Ireland.. Cataldus had studied at Lismore ; 
ere long he taught there, and with such renown, that men 
flocked from all the neighboring countries to hear him — 
Gauls and Angles, Scots and Teutons. Thus spoke the 
Eoman office : the biographer had forgotten that in the 
second century, nations named by him scarcely thought 
of seeking lessons in Christian science. 

Be that as it may, the church of Ireland was illustrated 
in the next century by an authentic and incontestable 
renown ; Sedulius, whose doctrine was revered almost 
as much as that of the holy fathers, and whose hjrmns 
Christendom still chants. Another school, as learned as 
that of Lismore, rose in the isle of Beg-Erin ; there St. 
Ibar taught sacred and profane learning, and crowds of 
Irishmen and foreigners, monks, and others, came to 
hear his words. On the other side, men were accus- 
tomed to turn their steps to Italy, in order to draw at 
Rome from the very fountains of doctrine. There 
Colman and Fintan studied ; there Kieran spent fifteen 
years ; there Ailbeus had as his master the great St. 
Hilary ; Declan, after exhausting the lessons of Dyra- 
ma, his master, in Ireland, and teaching there himself, 
came to Rome to pursue long and laborious studies. 
Already had Ireland a kind of school at Rome — a sort 
of studious, holy colony, incessantly renewed ; when 
Declan set out with his companions, Patrick arrived 
with his. 

The popes had already fixed their eyes on that people, 
so apparently thirsting for virtue and truth. A Roman 
8 



26 Legendary History 

priest, on arriving in Ireland, had found Ailbeus, still 
young, (he was seven years old,) outside of his father's 
house, kneeling with upturned eyes, and ardently pray- 
ing that the Creator of heaven and earth might be re- 
vealed to him. He was the image of Ireland, awaiting 
the word that was to enlighten its darkness. 

Yet Palladius failed. Others, perhaps, had failed be- 
fore him. Ireland awaited its deliverer, and that de- 
liverer had not yet appeared. This national Messias of 
Ireland is St. Patrick. 



Op Ibeland. 27 



CHAPTER IT. 

ST. PATRICK. 

When the year 432 arrived, the magicians were trou- 
bled ; the spirit whom ^they served, and who inspired 
them, felt that the hour was at hand, and that his con- 
queror approached. 

At that time, says Probus,* there was in those coun- 
tries a powerful and cruel pagan king, who reigned over 
a barbarous people. His name was Laogaire, the son 
of Neill, and he dwelt in the city of Temora.f Around 
him dwelt magicians, enchanters, workers of every kind 
of witchcraft, who knew and foretold the future. The 
most famous were Egli, Mel, and Locri. Now, the ma- 
gicians announced frequently to the king and to the 
princes, that a strange prophet would come from abroad, 
and beyond the sea, with a new doctrine, unknown, un- 
graceful, and hard. Few desired his coming, but many 
would receive him ; all would pay him reverence. He 
was to overthrow the kingdom, striking with death the 
kings who resisted him, and seduce the mass of the peo- 
ple ; he was to banish science, and establish *an eternal 
kingdom. And they wrote verses which all the people 
chanted : " The chief of doctrine shall come, with his 
curved staff ; and every family shall be struck in the 
head. At his table he will pronounce magic words, and 

* Vita Patricii. Vita Patricii, auct. Patrido, Jtm. f Tara. 



28 Legendary History 

from the vestibule of his house all his disciples shall 
answer, ' So be it, so be it.' " 

In fact, in the year 432, Patrick crossed the sea, and 
landed on Irish earth at the mouth of the Dee, near 
Crioch-Cuallan ; according to others at Innisbherde. 

Patrick was a Briton.* His father, Calpurnius, a dea- 
con, son of the priest Potitus, had espoused Conch essa, 
and dwelt at Bannave, in the country of Nentry, on the 
confines of Britain and Albania.f Conchessa was a sis- 
ter of St. Martin, of Tours ; she had been carried off 
with her sister, and both had married, and lived one at 
Bannave, the other at Empthor. 

The stone which received the predestined child at his 
birth was long venerated ; it shed tears when it heard a 
false oath- At its right was a fountain in the form of a 
cross, whose waters possessed a marvellous limpidity for 
the eyes, a delicious sweetness for the lips. His first 
years, J like those of Jesus in the Gospel of the child- 
hood, were spent amid familiar prodigies ; he played 
with miracles ; he seemed to try his strength, and the 
divine power, with a maternal complaisance, reduced it- 
self to his age and stature. 

But trials soon began, and were long and painful. 
Thrice was he dragged into captivity, § in the islands 
and on the continent ; before his eyes his country fell a 
prey to fire and sword ; Calpurnius and Conchessa were 
slain ; Ructhi, his brother, Mila, his sister, were hurried 
away into bondage. He was conducted at last to Gaul, 
was ransomed by Christians, and found St. Martin, of 
Tours ; his trials were accomplished. Laborious study 



♦ Hymn Fiech. Probus, Vita Patricii. f Joceljm, Vita Patricii. 

X Vita Patricii, auctore Patricio, Juniore. § Probus. 



Op Ireland. 29 

began.* It was the epoch of St. Martin's death ; Pat- 
rick visited Italy and the islands, and returned to Gaul 
to put himself under the discipline of St. Germanus, of 
Auxerre, who was his master for eighteen years accord- 
ing to some, forty years according to others ; then he 
returned to Rome ; and it was at this time that Pope 
C destine sent him to Ireland, replacing his name of Sue- 
cat by the glorious epithet of Patrick. 

Thither had God insensibly conducted him, ever lead- 
ing him by the hand. At first an angel had been at- 
tached to his steps, appointed to console him in his trials, 
and deliver him when they reached their term. " Ev- 
ery day (he was then a slave in Ireland) I took out my 
flocks to pasture, and during the day I prayed frequent- 
ly ; f I was more and more inflamed with divine love ; 
my faith was strengthened, my mind exalted ; my 
prayers exceeded a hundred in the day, and were almost 
as numerous at night. I even dwelt in mountains and 
forests, and I arose before day to pray in rain, cold, and 
snow, and I did not feel it ; and there was no slothful- 
ness in me as there is now, because then the spirit burned 
within me. One day in my sleep I heard a voice saying 
to me, * Thou dost well to fast, for thou shalt soon re- 
turn to thy native land.' And a little after the voice 
said to me, ' Behold, thy ship is ready.^ It was not in 
this neighborhood, but two hundred miles off, and I had 
never been in that place, and knew no one." 

When he fell a second time into bondage, the voice 
said to him, " Thou shalt be two months with these men." 
And so it came to pass : on the sixtieth night he was 
taken out of their hands. 



* St. Fiech. f St. Patrick, Confessio. c. ri. 

3* 



30 Legendary History 

On two different occasions God had revealed to him 
his mission. When he returned from his first captivity, 
which had kept him six years in Ireland, his parents be- 
sought him not to leave them. " And then I saw, in a 
vision by night, a man coming from Hiberio (Ireland) 
having countless letters. He gave me one ; I read it, and 
it began, The voice of the Irish, And while I read, I 
seemed to hear the voice of those who were in the wood 
of Foclut, near the western sea ; and they all, as with 
one voice, cried out, ' We beseech thee, saint, come 
and walk still in our midst.' Then my heart was trou- 
bled ; I could read no longer, and I awoke." 

Repairing to Rome,* he was stopped on an island. 
God called him to the summit of Mount Hermon, seated 
him at his right, and showed him the people that was to 
be his people. 

His mission was consecrated by Heaven, sanctioned 
by Rome ; he set out, passed once more through Gaul,t 
where St. Germanus gave him sacerdotal vestments, sa- 
cred vessels, and books ; he at last embarked for Ireland, 
with twenty companions. But his science, his strength, 
his riches, were not in his Gallic presents, nor in his 
companions, nor in his books ; they were especially in 
his curved staff that he bore in his hand, and which had 
borne up the divine steps of Jesus Christ. 

The moment had come for Ireland ; it would even 
seem that it was behindhand. It was a shame to Rome 
not to have done more for the noble country which had 
received so little and given so much. It was sad for 
Christianity that a province where she had once set foot 
was not wholly hers, was still disputed, or rather, still 

* Probus. t Usher, Eccles. Britan. Antiq. p. 842. 



Of Ireland. 31 

held by the paganism of the Druids and Fileas. Nor 
was Ireland alone concerned, nor was Ireland alone to 
be converted. 

Christianity had subdued the whole empire, and had 
every where the same frontiers, except on the east, where 
it had even passed the limits of the empire. But the in- 
vasions came, and it was not for Christianity to recoil 
with the state. Nor did it. But in this meeting, this 
strife of two great seas, a kind of barrier was formed, the 
Rhine and Danube marking in Europe the extreme limit 
of barbarism ; and Christianity, in spite of its immense 
expansive force, might be powerless to cross it. It was 
necessary, then, to establish it without the empire, with- 
out the barbarism which assailed it, that from this posi- 
tion, taking the pagan world — so to speak — in the rear, 
it might enter straiglit to the very heart of northern pa- 
ganism. On certain points this northern paganism had 
become the invader and the conqueror ; in Britain, 
Christianity, forgetting its universal and heavenly char- 
acter, had become national, and was perishing with Brit- 
ish nationality. There, then, Christian Rome had lost a 
province which was to be rescued. 

Again, Rome and its former provinces, harassed, rent, 
exhausted, needed men for this powerful diversion, for 
this sublime and stubborn war, which would perhaps 
swallow up missionaries by legions. A young and 
ardent nation was needed, which, once gained to the 
Christian cause, would be ready to move in a body, to 
bear to all nations, to every solitude, the spirit, the faith, 
the enthusiasm, the asceticism, the sanctity, of its new 
religion. 

Ireland seemed to unite all these conditions ; it was 
to satisfy all these wants. 



32 Legendary History 

Patrick arrived, clad with all the arms of the Chris- 
tian propaganda — ineffable sweetness mingled with rav- 
ishing grace, inflexible and impetuous zeal, supernatural 
power. 

This power was every where manifested * in the se- 
verity of the apostle, as in his benefits ; in his presence 
nature was agitated and seemed affected. The magi- 
cians soon heard strange things : at the approach of 
Patrick the isle was filled with prodigies. On his ar- 
rival, Dichu raised against him that arm whose might 
was renowned in Ireland ; his arm was arrested by an 
invisible power, and withered. The sailors who had 
brought him related that they had refused to take a 
leper on board, and that the leper, by Patrick's order, 
had crossed the sea on a rock which floated beside 
their vessel. 

Yet the magicians accepted the combat,* and were 
supported by several princes. " Lo, one of us is sick ! " 
said Macfil to him ; " come and chant over him some of 
thy magic chants, to see whether thou wilt heal him." 
Prestiges were tried against miracles ; but Lugaic-Mail 
was overcome as the Egyptian priests were by Mose.^. 
The defeat was often terrible and mortal : five Pruids 
or more perished there. The princes were equally 
stricken. Recraid came to him with his magicians, 
having magic signs written under his white robes ; he 
fell dead. Kertic had despised the admonitions of the 
saint, and persecuted Christianity ; one day he ordered 
a bard to sing ; when, lo, the inspired mouth declares 
that his reign is about to end ; and as the attendant 
nobles cried out and rose in wrath, at that very instant 

♦ Probus. 



Of Ireland. 33 

a terrible power was manifested ; the prince and the 
man became a shameful and miserable beast. On that 
savage earth, so long inured to drink human blood, 
amid clans ever in battle, amid warriors who never laid 
aside their battle axe, the mission itself resembled a mer- 
ciless combat. Leogaire perished with all his suite, and 
that suite was numerous.* In another place, forty-nine 
men slay each other ; in another, Lonan, with his ser- 
vants, is swept off by death, or the people of Teamrach 
disappear almost entirely in the gaping earth. 

But this powerful hand, sometimes raised to smite, 
was more frequently raised to resuscitate and bless ; or 
else, when it gave death, it was because death was 
sweeter than life. Rius found it hard to believe ; to 
convince him, Patrick restored him his youth, f and then 
gave him his cnoice between this renewed youth and 
the goods of eternity. Rius preferred to die. At the 
fountain of Debach, near Cruachan, Patrick, accompanied 
by his bishops, met the two daughters of King Leo- 
gaire, J Aethne, the fair, and Fethle, the blooming. 
They heard the word, and believed. He baptized them 
and attired them in robes of dazzling white. " Show us 
now," they said, " tlie face of Christ, our spouse." 
Patrick answered, " Unless you taste the body and the 
blood of Christ, and die in the body, you shall not see 
Christ in his glory." They said, " Offer then the sacri- 
fice of the body and blood of Christ, that we may be 
delivered from the corruption of the flesh, and behold 
our betrothed in heaven." Then Patrick celebrated the 
sacrifice. Leogaire's daughters received with great hope 
and perfect faith, and slept in the peace of death. 

* Probus, Benignus, Jocelyn, Vitse Patricii. f Jocelyn. 

J Elv. Probus, Jocelyn, ch. 58. 



34 Legendary History 

Even kings opened their hearts to these penetrating 
graces, to these mystic felicities ; but Patrick was not 
prodigal of them ; he could also give others. He one 
day asked King Connall whether he wished to assume 
the monastic habit. The king replied that his soul was 
ready for whatsoever he should command ; but St. Pat- 
rick, satisfied with his devotion and obedience, told 
him, " Thou shalt bear the staff and the buckler, as a 
sign of monastic sanctity and royal authority ; thou 
shalt have the name and exterior of a layman ; but thy 
merits and thy heart shall be those of a monk." And 
tracing on the buckler the sign of the cross, with the 
staff of Jesus, Patrick promised that his descendants 
should be invincible whenever they bore that buckler 
to battle. Now, the history of Ireland and popular bal- 
lads testify whether Patrick kept his promise faithfully. 

The monarchs were gained or humbled ; magic was 
overthrown ; the Druids and Fileas, the priests and 
the poets, Macfil, Pheg, Dubtach, were Christians, mis- 
sionaries, bishops. The evil ones themselves gave the 
last battle, and lost it ; the sound of Patrick's bell 
echoed through their substance like the blast of heaven's 
trumpets ; in its utmost effort it broke ; but the infernal 
army was routed, and the last sounds pursued it beyond 
the borders of Ireland, thenceforward closed to it for- 
ever. 

Then the work went rapidly on ; Patrick pursued it 
with ardor. He went around preaching and baptizing, 
founding churches, ordaining pastors, pursuing the re- 
bellious to the bosom of the wildwood, to the very 
depths of the moorland. He had sought Milcho and 
his daughters, whom he had served during four years 
of his captivity in Ireland. The two young maidens 



Op Ireland. 35 

heard him ; but the unhappy magician would have 
blushed with shame to humble himself to his slave, and 
preferred to burn up wretchedly in his house.* Another 
fled from his exhortations, and Patrick sought him in 
the woods ; night came on ; but around Patrick the 
night shone with a supernatural light, and the very 
darkness was radiant. It was as a visible manifestation 
of the intellectual light that was in him, and with which 
he enlightened the minds of the Irish. 

His voice was untiring ; and for him God suppressed 
nights and days ; he spoke for three days and three 
nights;! and the sun did not set for those who heard 
him, and it seemed to them but an hour. For him the 
Almighty constantly manifested his power. Angels 
came to lay the veil on the brow of the virgins whom 
he consecrated. At other times, the future sanctity and 
greatness of the child that he baptized were revealed to 
him ; then he blessed it, lifting it up in his arms, or seat- 
ing it beside him in his chariot, the better to watch over 
the hope of Erin. Heaven itself opened to him, and 
angelic concerts, rays of eternal glory, emanations of 
supreme felicity, descended to console him, refresh him, 
and renew his strength. 

After thirty years' toil, all Ireland was conquered. 
He solemnly took possession in the name of the gospel, 
and organized it; the earth, the men, the animals, the 
fruits were decimated: this tithe was for the church; 
the men and women who composed the human tithe be- 
came nuns, priests, or monks. Ireland was covered with 
holy abodes. 

In thirty years he had founded three hundred and six- 

* Patricius Junior, Vita St. PatriciL f Vita Brigid. 



36 Legendary History 

ty-five churches,"^ consecrated three hundred and sixty- 
five bishops, ordained three thousand priests; in one 
single day, in Connaught, he had baptized seven kings 
and twelve thousand of the people. 

Then it was that he ascended the heights of Mount 
Cruachan-Eli,t to contemplate, bless, and crown his 
work. When he reached the summit of Eli, from every 
horizon, clouds of birds of every kind and every hue 
were gathered together ; their countless multitude cov- 
ered the heavens : it was the souls that owed their sal- 
vation to him. He blessed them, blessed that land of 
Erin so dear to him, and begged of the Almiglity three 
favors for it : that every man born upon it« who should 
at his last moment make before God the avowal of his 
faults, should be pardoned ; that no foe should ever sub- 
ject it to an irrevocable bondage; that no Irishman 
should at the end of the world behold with the eyes of 
the flesh the destruction of the earth and the day of 
judgment. 

Still the divine favor was not exhausted; Patrick 
made four other petitions ; he wished to assure the sal- 
vation of his people, and feared that he had not made it 
easy enough. The first was, that all Ireland should be 
saved by participation in the merits of its apostle ; sec- 
ond, that all those who on the day of his birth should 
chant the hymn in his honor, should see the acceptance 
of the penance which they did for their sins ; thirdly, 
that those who should devoutly celebrate his memory, 
should find favor before God, and not perish eternally ; 
fourth, that on the day of judgment all the Irish should 
have him as their judge. This last favor was great ; it 

* Nennius, § 54. t Nennius, Elv. Probus, Vita Patricii. 



Op Ireland. 37 

placed St. Patrick in the rank of the apostles, to whom 
it was said,* "You shall sit on twelve thrones to judge 
the twelve tribes of Israel." Yet he obtained it; a lit- 
tle before his death, an angel announced to him that 
nothing had been refused to him ; that Patrick might 
be at rest as to the future destiny of that people, which 
caused him such constant, such touching anxiety. 

At first he had received his institution from God and 
the church ;t he wished, too, to have his last investiture 
from Heaven and from Rome. He went to obtain the 
Papal approbation, and returned with the pallium. 

His last years were spent in the sweets of retirement 
and of the contemplative life.f Yet at times he would 
leave his cherished cloisters of Sabhall or of Armagh ; 
once a year the national synod assembled, and the thirty 
bishops who governed the new church received the in- 
spirations of Ireland's pontiff. Thus he passed thirty 
years, living, so to speak, between heaven and earth, 
half hidden from the view of the people, who honored 
and invoked him as a living pastor, and as a patron 
transfigured in the heavenly world ;t for the hymn of 
St. Patrick, even then, resounded in oratory and basil- 
ica. Sechnall told him one day that he wished to eu- 
logize a saint whom the earth still possessed. *' Hasten, 
then," said the apostle, " for thou art at the gates of 
death." Sechnall wrote the hymn and died. Patrick 
thus enjoyed a foretaste of the glory of the saints, and 
it was in this sweetness of the half-human life, and this 
anticipated beatitude, that he awaited from his guardian 
angel the signal to prepare for death. 



* St. Fiech, Hymn. f Usher, Eccles. Britannise Antiquit. p. 872. 

X Jocelyn, Vita Patricii, c 191. Fiech, Hjinn. 

4 



38 Legendary History 

The place of Ms repose liad been miraculously pointed 
out to him.* One day, while announcing the word of 
God to a multitude, a brilliant cloud, lit up by a flash 
of lightning, descended earthward from heaven ; it hov- 
ered a moment over the assembly ; then, settling on the 
summit of Leithglass, it vanished. The people durst 
not question Patrick, but they spoke to Bridget. Brid- 
get told them, "Ask Patrick." But Patrick answered 
her, " Thou and I are equal ; do thou reveal this mys- 
tery." And Bridget declared that it was the spirit of 
Patrick, come to visit the spot where his body was to 
repose. Then Patrick told Bridget to make, with her 
own hand, a winding sheet to bury him in ; it was in 
this winding sheet that he wished to rise on the day 
when God should call him to eternal life. 

When the appointed time drew nigh, Patrick set out 
for Armagh ; there did he wish to die.t The angel 
reminded them that he had promised Dichu's son to die 
on his ground, and leave him his mortal remains ; Pat- 
rick returned then to Sabhall. 

Such is the burden of traditions ; for, strange to say, 
a mysterious uncertainty soon settled over the place of 
his interment ; t it was a new point of resemblance with 
Moses. " The holy spot," says tradition, " was long ven- 
erated." § Once, when they wished to erect a church 
there, flames issued from the tomb ; a religious awe 
checked the work ; veneration redoubled for that holy 
memory. 

No writing has transmitted the remembrance of the 
wonders that must have been accomplished on that 



* Ultan., Vita Brigidse. t Fiech, Hymn. Jocelyn, Vita Patricii. 

X Neimius. § Elv. Probus. 



Of Ireland. 39 

spot.* The very site seems to have been blotted, for a 
time at least, from the minds of men, if it be true that 
miraculous signs were needed to find it again in the 
twelfth century. But who knows whether Ireland did 
not wish to hide from the foreign invader the true spot 
of her holy sepulchre ? 

At the very moment of his death, his body was not 
confided to mortal hands.f It was wrapped in the 
winding sheet that Bridget's hands had prepared ; but 
the angels embalmed, buried, and watched it ; angels 
chanted over him the hymns and psalms of the dead. 
During the funeral rites the sun did not set ; twelve 
days and twelve nights it shone on Erin. 

It is related that the people of Ulidia and of Ar- 
magh contended for the precious remains, and that the 
sea advanced to separate them ; and then there ap- 
peared two chariots exactly alike, proceeding at the 
same time towards the two cities. At a certain dis- 
tance, on the banks of the Cancune, the chariot of 
Armagh vanished. Such is Jocelyn's account ; but is 
not this the faith of Ulidia, and according to the faith 
of Armagh was it not the chariot of Ulidia that dis- 
appeared ? 

Such was St. Patrick's life. The story has been 
long ; but is not St. Patrick, so to speak, his whole 
people? Under God, he was the creator of Ireland ; 
he drew it from nothingness, fashioned it with his 
hands, animated it with his breath, and leaving it, seems 
to have left it his faith and his soul. Is not faith in 
St. Patrick the religion of Ireland, and is not Ireland's 
religion her whole history ? Is it not Erin herself? 

* Jocelyn, Vita Patricii. t Elv. Probus. 



40 Legendary History 



CHAPTER Y. 

ST. PATRICK'S COMPANIONS. 

On arriving from Gaul, Patrick had with him twenty 
companions. This intrepid little army soon increased. 
Albeus rallied to it ; Declan submitted'; Ibar, Kiaran, 
and Abban united to form around Patrick a powerful 
combination of power and light. 

Then came the disciples, the pupils of the masters 
formed rapidly by the grace of Heaven. The workmen 
multiplied as the harvest became more vast and more 
dense, and seemed to spring from the soil with the har- 
vest — Maccecthus, Macnessius, Maccaerthenn : in vain 
should we try to number them ; they are to be counted 
by hundreds. They must indeed have been numerous, 
to meet the wants of that rapid mission. Patrick ar- 
rived and spoke ; the people were converted ; a church 
was founded, promptly built, such was the simplicity of 
Irish architecture ; a disciple received from Patrick 
his last lessons and his ahgetoria — that is to say, the 
Roman alphabet, and a new Christian community was 
formed, a new bishop installed. 

In the long life of the patriarch, generations were 
renewed around him, and passed successively under his 
discipline. He beheld the birth of many, who, later, 
before his own eyes, brought the greatest renown to the 
Irish church. One day King Daire, passing through 
Dalriada, heard from a tomb a voice like a plaintive 



Of Ireland. 41 

moan. When the grave was opened, a sweet odor ex- 
haled ; * an infant was moaning on its mother's corpse. 
Then they told the prince that a woman came from be- 
yond the sea ; that sinking under the heat and restless- 
ness of a fever, she died before giving to the light the 
little creature that she bore in her, and that there, in the 
shades of the tomb and the bosom of death, the child 
had sought the way that was to lead to light. " Poor 
child ! " cried the affected prince. He took the child ; 
Patrick baptized it, and the word " Poor child," in Irish 
Olcan, which gushed from Daire's heart, remained the 
touching name which marked the child born of a corpse 
and drawn from the tomb. Olcan became, subsequently, 
one of the brightest luminaries of Ireland. Among 
these children adopted by St. Patrick, several have, too, 
a touching or pleasing history. 

Fervent was the faith and ardent the toil in this 
sacred band. Powerful was the word, more powerful 
still the works. Mochteus, alone, formed three hundred 
priests and a hundred bishops ; and when, still a child, 
he crossed the British sea,t it sufficed to dip his finger 
into the swollen billow to calm all the fury of the 
storm. But the task was too rude and laborious. Ire- 
land was to be ploughed, tilled, fructified, and harvested 
from one extremity to another ; its isles visited, its moors 
traversed, its mountains crossed, its people called, its 
magi confounded or touched, its princes converted or 
mastered. This was not all. They had to pray, read, 
study ; they had to establish, organize, and direct 
churches, monasteries, and schools. Nor was this all. 
The keen and skilful axe of the new Christians might 

* Evinus, Vita Patricii tripartita. f Vita Mocht 

4* 



42 Legendary History 

transform forests into churches ; but the axe represent- 
ed almost all Irish industry, and skilful as was the hand 
that plied it, it could not do all. The churches needed 
vessels, vestments, and books. The disciples undertook 
to supply them ; sacred vessels, crosiers and mitres, dal- 
matics and chasubles, bells, cymbals, the copying, bind- 
ing, and adorning of books, all these they learned to 
make, and made well.* Fortchern worked in iron ; Es- 
sa, Tassa, and Biteus, in steel ; Cuana, Mactal, wrought 
copper ; and some of these blessed workmen produced 
masterpieces: such was the famous reliquary of Finn 
Fardheach, by Maccect of Doranachloebain. Not long 
after men counted the three hundred bells, three hun- 
dred pastoral crosiers, and three hundred gospel books, 
all coming from the skilful hands of the holy bishop 
Dagoeus,t and the memory of the gold work of Asic 
was preserved in the last century in the church of El- 
phin.l The women had their part. Liupita, Tigrida, 
Crumtheris, wove and embroidered, and were the first 
mistresses of the Irish women. Who formed these ap- 
prentices, these companions, these masters? Heaven 
came to their aid. Many had learned and practised 
their art by the grace of God, and then made disciples.§ 
Thus did Patrick's disciples labor in mind, in word, 
by hand ; long years were spent in this laborious life ; 
long did they remain near their master, attached to his 
person, sharing the hardships of his wandering life ; 
and when their heads had whitened and their bodies 
bent down, when strength was exhausted, if Patrick per- 

♦ Vita Patricii tripartita. t Vita Dagoei. 

X Ware, De Hibern. Ant. Disquis. 

§ See, in the Four Masters, i. 137, the curious account of the artists and 
workmen that formed St. Patrick's family. 



Of Ireland. 43 

ceived that their time of rest had come, he gave them 
(to use his own language) a place of repose ; he confided 
a church to their care. Once on a time the unwearied 
apostle returned from the northern parts of Ireland ; * 
they were passing through trackless, swampy parts, and 
Maccaerthenn, the staff of his old age, took him upon 
his shoulders as he had done ; for so many years had 
not gathered over the head of the faithful disciple with- 
out weakening his limbs, and curving his shoulders. 
Patrick felt him bend ; he heard the painful sounds of 
his wearied breath. " My son," he said, " I had not per- 
ceived that thou wast getting weak." " My father and 
my lord," replied Maccaerthenn, " I am bending beneath 
the weight of years. All your other sons, my fellow- 
disciples and contemporaries, have obtained of thy pa- 
ternal goodness a place of refreshment and repose ; my 
soul feels that its weakness needs to recollect itself in 
contemplation." Then the apostle, taking compassion 
on his disciple, gave him Clogher, in the vicinity of the 
primatial see of Armagh. But in school or in solitude, 
in church or in cloister, the disciples were ever submis- 
sive, and the master ever severe ; Patrick had organized 
the new church in strength, and administered it with 
apostolic vigor. The two Maccaerthenns of Clogher, 
and of Donnach-Mor, thought they could, without re- 
curring to Patrick, ordain a bishop ; it was Eochad, one 
of the sons of King Aileach. When they appeared be- 
fore St. Patrick, he reproved them with vehemence for 
their hardihood in introducing into the church the son 
of a ravening wolf, and he inflicted on them a severe 
punishment. " Your sees shall be smitten," he said j 

* Vita Patricii tripartita. 



44 Legendary History 

" Donnach-Mor shall never rise from its poor and hum- 
ble condition ; Clogher shall be ever afflicted with dis- 
cord." 

Thus, as long as Patrick lived, the work never ceased 
for an instant ; the toil knew no truce, no relaxation. 
Patrick was present and living in each of his ministers. 
And surely, to make Ireland the isle of saints, to bring 
to a conclusion with such brilliant success so great an 
enterprise, amid the difficulties which it met, it was not 
too much that the ardent energy and superhuman power 
of Patrick was manifested and acted on all points of 
Ireland at once, multiplied in his numerous disciples. 



Op Ireland. 45 



CHAPTER YI. 

THE SAINTS AND THE PRINCES. 

Christianity, arriving in Ireland, had to confront 
the people, the priests, and the princes. The conscience 
of the people acquiesced, their imagination was seduced, 
their eyes were struck, and they believed. Their super- 
stitions, gross remnant of ancient religions, could not 
offer any serious resistance; yet the magi struggled; 
they opposed St. Patrick ; they were even later contend- 
ing with Mochteus and Columbkill. But the contest 
could not long be a serious one. It soon transformed like 
magic itself. This episode of the magi is curious, but 
we find it, too, among the Bretons. The princes remain. 

All established powers are naturally suspicious ; by a 
sort of instinct they dread and repel all novelties, ready 
later to accept and favor them, if they hope to profit by 
them. Among the Irish princes some were doubtless 
armed against the new faith by the spirit of national 
superstitions and traditions, or by the interested ex- 
hortations of the magi ; some were persecutors, and 
committed cruel violence ; Eochad, king of Ulster, for 
example, cast into the sea his two daughters whom Pat- 
rick had converted and consecrated to God.* But to 
multiply and prolong the resistance, more general and 
powerful causes were needed. 

* Vita Patricii tripartita. 



46 Legendary History 

The Irish princes not only governed Ireland, but pos- 
sessed it ; at once chieftains of the people and owners 
of the soil. Now the church established by Patrick 
claimed its share in the ownership and the government. 

Christianity was established at once in the mind of 
the Irish people and on the soil of Erin. In the minds 
Christianity penetrated without an effort ; it found 
them, so to speak, empty. On the soil, the church did 
not conquer a domain without resistance ; it found the 
soil occupied. 

On another side, faithful to its moral mission, the new 
religion wished to do good and prevent evil ; regulat- 
ing human passions, it was especially to regulate those 
of the great ; and from the outset it intervened in the 
government of Irish society ; it took its stand between 
the people and the princes, between the oppressors and 
the oppressed. 

In one word, the missionaries had to struggle against 
the spirit of property, against passion. They had then 
especially to struggle with princes, who defended at 
once the integrity of their domains and the freedom of 
their passions. It is useless to say that this struggle 
commenced by Patrick outlived his day, and that the 
Irish princes were never sufficiently converted to make 
it disappear entirely. 

Moreover, the Irish monarchy, as MacGeoghegan 
loves to style it, was ordinarily and in fact a real pen- 
tarchy, and each archy was subdivided into lesser prin- 
cipalities, where inferior princes cantoned in their por- 
tion of property and rule, lands and men ; commanding 
men with a species of authority peculiar to the political 
system of the clans ; possessing the lands in full and 
entire right, as an inheritance. 



Of Ireland. 47 

Between the apostles and the princes the strife was 
divided, multiplied, renewed like the power attacked ; 
the victory was to be won, not in this place, or in that, 
but every where ; it was not one victory to be gained, 
but a thousand. 

" Give us," said Albeus to a king,^ " give us that isl- 
and, that we may build a monastery there." " I have 
not seen that island," replied the king ; " and I will not 
give it till I know its size." At that very instant the 
island, by a marvel of divine power, approached the 
king's vision, and stretched out full before him ; and 
when he beheld it he gave it to the holy bishop. 

Things did not always result thus. "At that time," 
says the Life of St. Maccaerthenn, " King Eochod great- 
ly tormented the man of God ; he drove from the pasture 
the ox which carried the baggage of the saint and his 
disciples, and tied it to a rock. The ox, pressed by hun- 
ger, bellowed thrice, and the sound reechoed afar ; then 
the king's magician ran up to tell them that they did 
very wrong to tie the ox. " Know, king, that every 
foot of land where its bellowings have been heard, shall 
one day belong to Maccaerthenn." Eochod, provoked 
at this, sent his men to drive off the saint and extinguish 
his fire. But they could not succeed ; and when the 
prince endeavored to go in person, he was struck mo- 
tionless, and became like a marble statue. He was 
forced to intercede. 

After all, it was not princes alone who protested 
against this quaint way of taking possession. One day, 
for example, Mochoemoc went with his monks to a part 
of Leinster called Enachtre, near Mount Bladhma,t and 

* Usher, Vita Ailbei. 

t Vita Mochoemoci, Colgan. The Bollandists. 



48 Legendary History 

began to build a monastery. The owner came up, and 
warned him not to waste his soil, as he would not give 
up his land. "I shall remain here," replied Mochoe- 
moc, " till I am taken by the hand and dragged off." 
The other seized him to expel him. " Tell me thy name," 
said the saint. His name was Bronach. " Well,'' said 
Mochoemoc, " thou hast been well named, for henceforth 
thou shalt be unhappy till the last day of thy life." 
(Bronach in Irish means unhappy.) And Bronach went 
away with a heavy heart, for he knew that the prophecy 
would be fulfilled. 

A holy man * found an island fit for an anchorite's 
abode ; he took up his residence there. When the 
owner came with his flocks and people, the saint asked 
him to retire, that his eyes might not be exposed to the 
sight of women. The other would not consent ; the isle 
was his, come to him from his forefathers in full right of 
inheritance. St. Bridget was called ; as she was good 
and merciful, the owner was not punished ; a powerful 
wind took him and his, and bore them far from the island 
gently and without doing them any harm. 

The great and true proprietors of the soil of Ireland 
were the princes ; they had then to undergo this kind of 
evangelical violence and holy occupation, wherever it 
was not prevented by voluntary donations. But the 
voluntary donations were numerous, and the Irish church 
was too young and too fervent to be avaricious. Mida 
established himself at the foot of Mount Luachra. The 
people of Hua-Conaill offered him all the lands which 
extended around his cell ; but the saint would accept 
only four acres to cultivate vegetables for her table. The 

* Animosus, Vita St. Brigidse. 



Of Ireland. 49 

Hua-Conaill were displeased. " What you refuse now," 
they said, " we will give it thee, when thou shalt have left 
us for heaven." * It is not in the invasions of the saints, 
or in the avarice of princes, that we must seek a full 
explanation of the antagonism which seems to divide 
them in the first age of Christian Ireland. The true 
cause is more glorious for the church. 

This antagonism was in fact deep and impassioned ; 
the struggle was sometimes singularly animated. 

Patrick t had traced with his hand the ideal image of 
royalty ; and this definition became, at a later day, in the 
synods, a canon of the Irish church : — 

" The justice of a just king is this : To judge no man 
unjustly ; to be the protector of the stranger, the widow, 
and the orphan ; to repress theft, punish adultery ; not 
to keep bufi'oons or unchaste persons ; not .to exalt 
iniquity ; to efface the impious from the land, extermi- 
nate parricides and perjurers ; to defend the poor and 
nourish them by liberal alms ; to appoint just men over 
the affairs of the kingdom ; to consult wise and tem- 
perate elders ; to avoid the superstitions of magicians, 
pythonesses, and augurs ; to defend his native land against 
its enemies, rightfully and stoutly ; in all things to put 
his trust in God." 

What were, on the other hand, the duties of the bishop ? 
Let us hear the voice of the synods ; J it is metaphoric 
and strange; but it is positive and expressive. "The 
chief (the bishop) must be the land which supports, the 
pilot who directs, the anchor that stays, the hammer that 
strikes, the sun that enlightens, the dew which moistens, 



* Colgan, Vita Midae. f De Abusionibus Seculi. 

+ Capit. Select, § Id., Spicil. Dacherii. 

5 



50 Legendary History 

the tablet to be written on, the book to be read, the 
mirror to be seen in, the terror that terrifies, the image 
of all that is good ; and let him be, too, all for all." 

Now as closely as Patrick's disciples approached this 
awful and holy ideal, as remotely perhaps did kings 
more frequently diverge from the model traced out for 
them ; and the two powers seemed to represent in them- 
selves, and in their struggle, the very strife of good and 
evil, of heaven and hell, of God and Satan ; there, too, 
was it at times revealed to the eyes of the saints, and 
under visible forms. 

One day that Mochoemoc and Comgall were reading 
together,* the prior of the monastery came and said, 
" friends of God, I ponder in amazement on a vision 
which God has shown me on the way ; horror and fear 
trouble my soul ; for I beheld above the king's castle a 
demon seated calmly there above ; and, on the contrary, 
I beheld a multitude of demons assembled around our 
house, and apparently preparing for a fearful combat." 
Comgall remained silent ; but Mochoemoc said, " Let us 
rise, father, and give thanks to God. If the wrath of 
the evil one is turned against our brethren, it is because 
they are faithful. Against us he sends his army ; while 
at the palace a single demon sits like a servant in his 
master's house, calmly awaiting his call ; but take the 
monastery on the left, I will take it on the right, and we 
will expel the demons." The evil ones in fact soon fled, 
returning to the king's castle, and intrenching there as 
in a solid post. 

Can we, after this, wonder at the holy wrath, the 
sharp words, bitter resentment, bloody punishments which 

* Vita S. Mochoemoc (Pulcherii) in Colgan and the BoUandists. 



Op Ireland. 51 

BO often befell the princes of Erin ? Let us not forget, 
moreover, that Ireland was then barbarous. On the side 
of the princes, the attack was often gross and violent ; 
and in the soul of these adversaries it will not be won- 
derful if at times we meet the vehement passions of 
uncivilized life, tried and sanctified, but ever prompt, 
violent, terrible even in good as they were in evil. 

In a great assembly held at Leighlin, St. Munnu kept 
them waiting.^ " And why," cried Subnd, King Dom- 
nail's son, " why wait all this while for that leper ? " 
" prince," answered the holy Abbot Lasrean, turning 
pale as he spoke, " use not such words of St. Munnu ; if 
his body is not here, his spirit is present ; I know that 
where he is, he has heard thy words, and God will 
avenge the insult to his servant." The same day before 
evening, Munnu arrived ; and after the two saints had 
saluted each other, Subn^ drew nigh to Munnu to ask 
his blessing ; but the saint repulsed him. " Why comest 
thou," he said, " to ask a leper's blessing ? In truth I 
tell thee, tliat when thou didst speak evil of me, Christ 
at his Father's right hand blushed ; I am a member of 
Christ, and he is my head ; and whoso causes the mem- 
ber, causes the head to suffer. Before this month is 
passed, thy kindred shall kill thee, cut off thy head, and 
cast it into the waters of the Barrow, which it shall 
never leave." The month had not expired when Subn^'s 
nephew accomplished the prophecy. 

Mochoemoc appealed to the King of Cashel ; t the 
prince answered his petition in contemptuous words, 
styling him a "little bald head." Scarcely had he 

* Usher, Vita Munnu. 
t Vita S. Mochoemoc. BoUandists. March. 



52 Legendary History 

uttered the guilty words, when one of his eyes was struck 
with blindness, and filled with intense pain. 

On another occasion, — for at times these princes were 
hardened by the Lord like Pharao of old, — he declared 
to the same king that he saw on him two demons, who 
rode him as a horseman does a horse. " And how shall 
I know that you see them ? " said the king. " Thou 
shalt have two signs," replied the saint : " this night a 
woman that thou lovest shall die, and to-morrow morning 
two horsemen on white steeds shall come and speak to 
thee, nor shalt thou know whence they come or whither 
they go." 

Bridget herself, the tender and the merciful, how she 
treats queens I how she speaks of princes ! * While she 
dwelt in the land of Bregia, Connal's daughter-in-law 
came to ask her prayers, for she was barren. Bridget 
would not go to receive her ; but leaving her without, 
sent one of her maidens. When the nun returned, 
"Mother," she asked, "why would you not go and see 
the queen, and pray Heaven to give her a son ? for you 
often pray for the wives of peasants." " Because," said 
the servant of God, " the poor and the peasant are almost 
all servants of God, while the sons of kings are serpents, 
children of blood and fornication, except a small number 
of elect. But after all, as she has had recourse to us, go 
back and tell her that she shall have a son ; he will be 
wicked, and his race shall be accursed ; yet he shall reign 
many years." 

When such was Bridget's blessing, can we wonder that 
so many others cursed ? 

* Animosus, Vita S. Brigidee. 



Op Ireland. 53 

Ailell, King of Munster, insulted Kiaran ; for seven 
days he was deprived of speech, and suffered intolerable 
pain ; he humbled himself and was pardoned ; but the 
chastisement had been severe ; at least it would have 
seemed so any where but in Ireland. 

Thus kings feared and sometimes bore the holy liberty 
of the bishops.* Aldus employed his charity and zeal 
in seeking out and repairing iniquities, in rescuing from 
slavery and imprisonment those unjustly detained. He 
one day claimed a maiden, but the king would not let 
her go. Then the saint, raising his voice, said to the 
imprisoned one, " Follow me, my daughter ; " and he took 
her through the crowd, leaving the king and his guards 
filled with amazement. " Kings," adds the biographer, 
" kings hated Aldus ; but by a power from on high, they 
were forced to do his will." 

How could they resist this invincible force, this for- 
midable vengeance ? What could visible power do 
against the invisible ? And when the legions of heaven 
armed all to give victory to Mochoemoc, what could the 
King of Cashel do, even had he at his beck the armed 
youth of the five kingdoms of Erin ? The first night 
after the dispute between the king and the holy bishop, 
an old man took the king by the hand, and led him to 
the northern city walls ; there he opened the king's eyes, 
and/he beheld all the Irish saints of his own sex in white 
garments, with Patrick at their head ; they were there to 
defend Mochoemoc, and they filled the plain of Femyn. 
The second night the old man came again, and took him 
to the southern wall, and there he saw the white robed 
glorious army of Ireland's virgins led by Bridget ; they 

* Vita S. Aidi. 

5* 



54 Legendary History 

too had come to defend Mochoemoc, and they filled the 
plain of Monael. 

All were not equally severe, so terrible in their wrath, 
so violent against resistance ; the most awful had their 
hours of indulgence, and then the miracle became a 
lesson where a quaint malice was blended with the 
moral. Of old, the angel Victor gave a treasure trove 
to pay Milcho for Patrick's liberty ; when Patrick de- 
parted, the gold disappeared, nothing remaining but vile 
dust. A prisoner's liberty cost Kieran no more,* and 
that day King Aengus lost at once the price of a bad 
action and the opportunity of doing a good one. Another 
Kieran, Abbot of Cluain, had intrusted to his hands the 
treasures of King Furbic. The king was told that the 
holy abbot was distributing the treasure among the 
poor ; nor was the charge unfounded. Great was at 
first the royal wrath ; then he calmed down, and merely 
asked for seven cows ; simply requiring, — and it seems 
that the condition was hard to fulfil, — that they should be 
red, with white heads, and all have horns. The two 
Kierans, the bishop and the abbot, united in prayer ; 
seven horned red cows appeared, with white heads ; and 
these they sent to Furbic. But they entered his stables 
that evening, and all disappeared by morning. 

It happened sometimes, too, that at the moment when 
the mighty and infallible words dropped from the saint's 
lips, the saint would be touched and affected at the sight 
of the wretch whom he was about to punish. Even then 
they could be appeased. The curse pronounced, begun 
even, must have its course ; such was its resistless power, 
that it acted like a blind and fatal force ; but it could 

* Vita Kierani. 



OfIreland. 55 

be averted as we avert the lightning of heaven.* Saint 
Aidus, the son of Sedias, was cursing a guilty prince. " 
father," cried a child, " let thy curse descend rather on 
this rock ! " The rock flew into fragments, but the prince 
was saved. 

It might happen, too, that the prince, guilty against 
one saint, and threatened by him, had deserved well of 
another by some better actions. Now, if malediction 
was resistless to do evil, benediction must have been 
equally efficacious to prevent it. Kings knew it well. 
" I care not for thy curse, Mochoedoc," said Aengussa ; 
" Cummin, the son of Fiache, who is a great saint, has 
blessed me, and even promised me temporal and eternal 
happiness." 

Yet even in such cases the saints were not disarmed. 
" I will not curse what Cummin has blessed," replied 
Mochoedoc, " but I will curse thy wife and child." 

The same Mochoedoc said to King Colman, " I have 
asked three things of God against thee ; two have been 
refused to me ; I have obtained the third. I asked that 
thou shouldst be struck with instant death, but St. 
Fachnan has obtained of God for thee fourteen years 
more of life. I asked that thou shouldst never enter 
heaven, but by the favor of St. Cainnech thou shalt be 
received there. I have asked that before the end of 
this month thou shouldst be deprived of thy kingdom, 
and God has granted my prayer." 

If, however, the sinner became humble, it was never 
too late, and the saint's charity ingeniously discovered a 
means of arranging the matter. Colman repented ; he 
made presents, and Mochoedoc relented. "Thou shalt 

* Vita Aidi. 



56 Legendary History 

indeed be dethroned," he continued, " and barely escape 
with thy life ; but as there are saints that love thee, thou 
shalt, after three days, be restored to thy power." 

With regard to Aengussa, he was not more inflexible ; 
and yet the prince's obstinacy was great. His wife and 
son, at the malediction launched on them, prostrated 
themselves in terror and alarm. Mochoedoc spared 
them'. " But I will curse," he said, " the lake that envi- 
rons thy city and gives it strength." The lake disap- 
peared. The king was unmoved. "I will curse the 
daughter of thy love, and thy proud and rapid courser, 
thy reliance in battle ; " and both died. Aengussa could 
not bear up against this double blow ; he was touched, 
and gave lands to build a church. Mochoedoc did not 
wish the destruction of the sinner, but only that he should 
do penance ; he gave him back his lake, his beloved 
daughter, and his champing war horse. 

Did motives foreign alike to religion, justice, and 
charity never intervene in these quarrels? Did they 
never assume a political character ? Do we not find at 
times the church or its saints mingling in the rivalry of 
ambition, in family feuds, in pretensions of caste, in the 
interest of clans? We- may with some probability sup- 
pose it. The King of Cashel spoke with insolence to 
Bishop Colman. " It does not become thee," said Moch- 
oedoc, " to speak thus to a great prelate, who, before 
God, is a saint, and who, in this world's nobility, is thy 
equal ; for you are of the same race." Under the pride 
of the priesthood and sanctity, there was still the pride 
of blood. The instincts and feelings of family and tribe 
might naturally persist amid the interests of God and 
the church. A striking fact, moreover, an episode of 
that struggle which we follow under its legendary form, 



Of Ireland. 57 

will show at once the character, form, and proportions 
that that contest might assume. 

Derraid, son of Herbaill,* ruled over all Ireland, and 
all matters came before his tribunal. Columba appeared 
in his presence to claim the liberation of Liber. As 
the king, in this case, did not judge with equity, the man 
of God rose in wrath, and exclaimed before the whole 
assembly, " Know, unjust king, that thou shalt never 
behold my face in thy realm, till God, the just Judge, 
has crushed thy haughty throne. For as this day thou 
hast affronted me before thy nobles by thy unjust sen- 
tence, so shall the Eternal affront thee in the day of 
battle before thy enemies.'^ With these words he 
mounted his horse, and smote it with his whip ; the 
blood gushed from the horse. Then the king's council, 
troubled as if at a prodigy, urged the king to do the 
saint's will and obey him, lest his power should be scat- 
tered by the Almighty ; but the king, transported with 
fury, closed his eyes to their good advice. 

Resolved to avenge himself on the race of Columba, 
he swore to reduce it all to bondage ; and to fulfil his 
oath, he assembled a large army, chariots, cavalry and 
foot soldiers, and with two thousand three hundred 
men, marched against the Connals, intending to exter- 
minate them. The Connals, at the tidings of the king's 
approach, assembled to the number of three thousand, 
resolved to battle manfully for their territory. Amid 
this people, who were in such peril, and put all their 
trust in God, Columba, at nightfall, rose in the spirit 
of divinely-given power, and fortifying his people, said, 
" If I have ever done any thing against my enemies, to-day, 

* Adamnan, Yita Columbae. 



58 Legendary History 

in the name of the Almighty, should I rise against them." 
And as he spoke, his voice resounded so fearfully in the 
ears of his companions, that all were awakened from 
sleep. Then he added, " As the Lord in the Red Sea 
was with Moses against Pharao, even so will he this 
day strike for you in battle. Fear nothing, then, for you 
shall be unharmed. Know that of a truth the Almighty 
is mightily incensed against this haughty king, and if a 
single man of you were to rise trustingly against them 
all, to fight in the name of the Lord, alone, by the power 
of the Lord, he would rout them all. Be firm, then, for 
not one of you shall this day fall in combat." 

Then this small body of men, hearing these words and 
accepting them as the testimony of the most high God, 
rushed instantly, and with dauntless hearts, on their 
surprised enemies ; for the voice of the saint had ex- 
pelled from their hearts all fear and dread of death. 
Then the angel of the Lord, in the form of a man of 
prodigious stature, in all a warrior's armor, appeared 
fearful in the camp of King Dermid. At this spectacle 
the enemy lost heart, and became like timid women. 

Such was the battle of Culldreibne, famous in Irish 
history. 

But how was the quarrel judged by the Irish church ? 
" The conquerors," continues Adamnan, " returned to 
Columba joyfully chanting their victory." But the man 
of God, addressing Scandalan in prophetic words, said, 
" This day has prepared me a long exile in a foreign 
land, far from my kindred." Then he went to the holy 
Bishop Finnian, to receive at his hands the penance 
which he deserved on account of that war. " Thou 
must," said Finnian, " make as many souls enter heaven 
by thy example as thou hast plunged into hell by the 



Op Ireland. 59 

disorder of war." Columba, rejoicingly, answered, 
" Thou hast pronounced a just judgment,'^ and then it 
was that he departed for Great Britain. 

Columba had then foreseen his condemnation, and 
he was condemned ; but his ever attendant angel had 
neither denied nor forsaken him ; and at the very moment 
when Finnian was pronouncing the sentence, the judge 
beheld near the guilty one the heavenly form of Axalt, 
concealed from all other eyes in the dazzling glory of 
his halo. 

Thus did the two principles, the two powers, meet in 
strife. Yet at times, princes and saints seemed to have 
but one mind. Fresh is the memory of good King Con- 
nail, who bore under his royal mantle the heart of a 
monk. Then was Ireland really an isle of saints, an 
evangelical kingdom, a true church. One day, as St. 
Camminus, and St. Cummeneus Fota, with King Guarius, 
of Conn aught, were conversing at Iniskeltra,* of spirit- 
ual things, Camminus said to Guarius, " king, could 
this church be filled on a sudden with whatever thou 
shouldst wish, what would thy desire be ? " "I should 
wish," replied Guarius, " to have all the treasures of gold 
and silver that the church could hold, to devote them 
to the salvation of souls, the erection of churches, and 
the wants of Christ's poor." " And what wouldst thou 
ask ? " said Guarius, in his turn, to Fota. " I would," 
he replied, " have as many holy books as the church 
would contain, to give to all who seek divine wisdom, 
to disseminate among the people the saving doctrine of 
Christ, and rescue souls from the bondage of Satan." 
Both then turned to Camminus. " For my part," said 

* Fessilogum, Aengussio auctore. 



60 Legendary History 

he, '^ were this church filled with men afflicted with every 
form of suffering and disease, I should ask God to 
vouchsafe to assemble in my wretched body all their 
evils, all their pains, and give me strength to support 
them patiently, for love of the Saviour of the world." 



Of Ireland. 61 



CHAPTER YII. 

THE SAINTS AND THE PEOPLE. 

If there was often war between the saints and the 
princes, there was, on the contrary, a heartfelt sympathy, 
a close alliance, between the saints and the people. We 
find, it is true, St. Senan envelop in his wrath, and anni- 
hilate by his curse, a whole city, which had refused 
him hospitality ; * nor was it a prince to whom Aidan 
said, " Well hast thou done to repent, for the earth was 
yawning to swallow thee up."t But these examples are 
rare, and it was not usually against the people that was 
armed that avenging wrath so frequently depicted in the 
history of the Irish saints. 

" In a country infested with robbers, where there are 
few secure and well-fortified retreats," says Gerald 
Barry,t " churches were the only places of refuge." This 
explains why the enemies of churches were so energeti- 
cally repressed, so severely punished. Was it necessary 
to break a will obstinate in evil, extort a donation from 
avarice, punish contemners of the divine law, terrify 
violators of holy places, repel sacrilegious invasions, — a 
man arose whose word was a sword. But more fre- 
quently still, wretchedness was to be succored, pain con- 
soled, and suffering alleviated. If the new prophets, fol- 
lowing the law of their master, were sometimes " the ham- 

* Vita Senani, in Colgan. f Vita Aidani. + Topog. Hib. 

6 



62 Legendary History 

mer which strikes and the terror that terrifies," they were 
almost always " the dew which moistens and the sun that 
warms." Were the weak to be protected, prisoners de- 
livered, tears wiped away by restoring the sick to health, 
or the dead to life ; were the people to be defeoded 
against the cruel evils of war, or bread to be multiplied in 
starving hovels, — then it was that the marvellous power 
and touching charity of the saints was lavishly displayed, 
and the gift of miracles, striking or obscure, majestic or 
familiar, ingenious or simple, displayed, like an intelligent 
and attentive servant, its fruitful resources and inexhaus- 
tible treasures. 

It seems as though the church were at times repre- 
sented with one hand turning against princes the point 
of the sword, with the other shielding people under its 
aegis. Men have vainly sought in the first Christian 
communities the unfindable type of an equalitarian so- 
ciety ; they have drawn from the gospel the ideal code 
of a democratic Utopia. It is doubtful whether a re- 
ligion which has always so easily and so well adapted 
itself to aristocracy, monarchy, and despotism, and which 
has finally constituted itself a government of autocratic 
form, is essentially democratic. Equality before God 
does not imply equality before men ; to defer equality 
till after death is not decreeing it in life ; dismissing de- 
mocracy to the next world is no pledge to establish it 
here ; and this future equality strongly resembles a prom- 
ise of compensation for present inequality. Moreover, 
to understand the part which the church has sometimes 
acted, there is no necessity of bestowing upon it a politi- 
cal scheme : her moral explains every thing. 

If the first law which the gospel gives men is not to 
form a republic, the first obligation which it imposes is 



Of Ireland. 63 

to conform to justice and charity. To preach the gospel, 
— that is to say, justice and charity, — is then to declare 
war on all that is unjust and oppressive ; it is to take up 
the defence of all that is innocent and oppressed. And 
as there is no oppression but that of force over weakness, 
the apostles, the ministers of the gospel, are inevitably 
thrown between the strong and the weak, the great and 
the little, to protect impotent innocence against malfea- 
sant power. As society is more disordered and violent, 
the more imperious, active, and striking becomes this 
mission of Christianity ; as it is regulated and mod- 
erated, war must die out and expire ; it may terminate 
by an alliance, whatever be the form of government and 
its political principle. 

No society was more disordered or more violent than 
that of Ireland, with its families cantoned apart like so 
many nations, with its clan feuds, its hereditary hatreds 
and vengeance, with its warlike spirit and predatory 
habits. Nor did the saints in any other land intervene 
with such zeal, energy, and charity. We have seen how 
Aldus, Aidan, Mochoedoc, Maccaerthenn, and Columbkill, 
to protect weakness and innocence, implored, threatened, 
or smote princes. To relate all the examples of this 
active and powerful intervention, would be almost to 
rewrite the whole history of the Irish saints. 

The chief of Theaffa came down to ravage a canton of 
Meath ; * he learned that the people had applied to St. 
Aidus to make peace with their enemy. On this news 
he quickened his march. " For," said he to his troops, 
" we must complete the work before the holy bishop has 
time to reach us." But Aidus knew their thought, and 

* Vita St. Aidi. 



64: Legendary History 

lie made against them the sign of the cross. And as they 
were crossing a river, which still separated them from 
the country which they wished to attack, their horses 
were suddenly checked by a mysterious power, and they 
remained there till Aidus came up. 

On another occasion, the kings of Tara and Munster 
met in battle array before Saighir,* the city of St. Kie- 
ran. The saint made useless efforts to disarm them ; but 
as they were about to engage, a neighboring forest waves, 
the uprooted trees formed an impassable barrier between 
the two armies ; the stream which traversed the plain 
swelled and overflowed, and the two armies fled in terror 
from each other. 

This solicitude, which defended whole armies against 
their own fury, which saved cities and tribes from mas- 
sacre and pillage, aided them also against evils sent from 
above. Columbkill, seeing a thick, ill-boding cloud pass 
through the air, knew that it was the bearer of a fearful 
pestilence. t " Let us go," said he to his disciples ; and 
embarking they followed the cloud, and rescued from 
the pestilence the victims wliom it had already seized. 

Thus did the saints mingle in the national life : we 
find them in every crisis and every danger. Nor did 
they reserve their power and their charity for great 
occasions and general calamities. Besides these striking 
manifestations, these miracles which form the holy por- 
tion of Irish history, they daily and hourly accomplished 
by the road side, by the hearth of poverty, for the hum- 
blest misery, works no less divinely stamped. It is the 
most profoundly popular part of the legend. It escapes 
analysis, it defies citation, so simple and familiar is it at 

♦ Vita Kierani f Adamnan, Vita Columbae. 



Of Ireland. 65 

times. Can "we speak of the marvellous pot, in which 
game came of itself, and which enriched the happy- 
family to whom Columbkill had given it ? Can we relate 
how milk and butter came up inexhaustible from the 
bottom of vessels already drained ? how the barren cow, 
the poor woman^s sole stay, became suddenly fruitful? 
how sheep eaten by the wolves returned to their afflicted 
owners? how at the village table, water was transformed 
to wine or mead ? In what terms can we relate the 
thousand stories, transmitted from evening to evening by 
the admiration of generations that had seen these prodi- 
gies, preserved and multiplied doubtless by the remem- 
brance and regret of those who would fain have seen 
them repeated for themselves? These stories are too 
quaint ; but in their occasionally rude quaintness there 
IS something indescribably sympathetic and touching ; 
for they attest at once the misery of past generations, 
the charity of the saints, and the gratitude of the poor. 
The miracles of the Irish saints are not, I believe, arti- 
cles of faith ; without questioning their merits, we may 
then, if not Irish born, be permitted to doubt the mar- 
vellous signs by which they show them ; but by admit- 
ting that their whole legend is only a kind of epic, half 
monastic and half popular, alternately ingenious and 
rude, vulgar and poetic, simple and brilliant, dramatic 
and artless, we must also admit that most of these stories 
are symbols. Men have passed amid the nations doing 
good. Gratitude has transmitted their actions, imagi- 
nation has transformed them. Their miracles are per- 
haps invented ; their virtues are not ; and there is always 
something true in these fictions, something human in this 
supernatural, something moral in this fancy. The peo- 
ple were not satisfied with preserving the memory of the 
6* 



66 Legendary History 

benefits which they had received, and transmitting them 
in narratives which imagination multiplied and embel- 
lished. They moreover vowed to their benefactors a 
veneration, which the whole church inherited. Monks 
and priests became sacred and inviolate. " Although 
our nation," said Maurice, Bishop of Cashel, to Gerald 
Sylvestris, " may seem rude and cruel, it has always ren- 
dered great respect and honor to the church ; never has 
it seen any one raise his hand against the saints of 
God."* And Stanihurst, in the sixteenth century, bore 
the same testimony. " Priests," said he, " are in great 
honor among them ; should war set the kingdom in 
flames, the ecclesiastics, like heralds bearing the cadu- 
ceus, could go every where without any risk or harm." t 
Thus have centuries perpetuated the alliance of the 
saints and the people, of Catholicity and Ireland, founded 
by St. Patrick, cemented by his disciples. Revolutions 
have failed to shake it ; persecution has not broken it ; 
it has gained strength in blood and tears ; and we may 
believe, after thirteen centuries of trial, that the Roman 
faith will disappear from Ireland only with the name of 
St. Patrick and the last Irishman. 

* Topograph. Hibem. f ^^ Rebus in Hibemia gestis. 



Op Ireland. 67 



CHAPTER YIII. 

ST. BRIDGET. 

In the stories which nourished the easy faith of the 
Irish people, and which enlivened their misery ; in the 
inexhaustible, yet simple, story of charity, one name 
returns more frequently than others ; it is the name of St. 
Bridget. Bridget was the most generous heart, the ten- 
derest and most feeling soul among all these holy souls. 
all these benevolent hearts that loved and succored poor 
Ireland ; but it seems, too, as though the popular imagi- 
nation took pleasure in portraying, in the form of a wo- 
man, the sweetest of powers, the dearest of virtues. 
" Why," asked the king, " have you given to the poor 
the sword which I had presented to your father ? " " If 
my God," replied Bridget, " told me to give my father, 
too, and you yourself, I would give both with all that 
you possess." In the legend other saints, and before all 
St. Patrick, represent, doubtless, Christian and apostolic 
perfection ; Bridget represents mercy and charity. The 
greatest and best had in their sanctity something daz- 
zling and awful ; their mission was to do good, but, 
especially, at the same time, to govern, and sometimes to 
punish. Bridget, too, governed. Patrick seems, in 
dying, to have bequeathed her his spirit ; and when the 
Irish church, at the death of her powerful apostle, 
seemed for an instant to halt and totter, it was Bridget 
who supported it and led it on in its path ; she was for 



68 Legendary History 

an instant, so to say, Bishop and Primate of Ireland ; 
but this too human and almost masculine part of her 
history the people have seemed anxious to forget, so as 
to behold in their sweet patroness only the woman, the 
merciful virgin, whom they place in a radiant trinity 
between Patrick and Columbkill. 

Bridget and Patrick are moreover as inseparable in 
their history as in the memory of Ireland. From the 
assembly of Tailten, where Patrick beheld her and 
adopted her as his daughter,^ she was attached to him ; 
she walked, so to speak, in his shadow ; she became also, 
thenceforward, the greatest after him in the Irish church. 
"Thou art my equal,'^ said he to her at Leth Glass. 
Patrick was interred in the winding sheet that he would 
have her make him with her own hands; and later, 
when Bridget died, the piety of the faithful would not 
suffer them to be separated in death ; their bones re- 
posed in the same tomb, waiting for Columbkill to come 
and share it with them. The church consecrated and 
honored the holy and threefold alliance t in her festival 
and in her prayers ; they were the three torches, the 
seed, the three glorious patrons of Ireland. 

While the people preserved her memory and repeated 
the wonders of her life, saints, abbots, bishops, felt it an 
honor to commit them to writing ; if in the time of Nen- 
nius sixty-six had written the life of St. Patrick, Kilian, 
in the eighth century, writing that of St. Bridget, enu- 
merates those who had written it before him : they were 
Ultan, Eleran, Animosus, illustrious names in the Irish 
church, without speaking of Cogitosus and others. 



* Vit. Brigid., auct. Animosus. 

t Offi. Transl. Patric, Brig., SS. et Columbkille. 



Op Ireland. 69 

And who knows how many after them took up again 
the sweet and wonderful theme? for biographers had 
not only to relate the benefits where her power and gen- 
tleness were displayed in prodigies, simple and familiar, 
easy doubtless to do for any Irish virgin saint, easy to 
be believed by any Irish auditory, but a little too vulgar 
perhaps to charm or strike the imagination, the ear, 
accustomed to miracles. Bridget had not only done 
good, she sometimes did it with an ingenious and lovely 
grace ; sometimes she was pleased to show in her works, 
not only the charity and power of a saint, but also 
the poetic and romantic imagination of a daughter of 
Erin. 

" Virgin," cried Connal, " make haste, and bless me, 
for my brother Corpre is on the way to kill me." 
Bridget blessed him ; when Corpre came up, he, too, 
asked her benediction, and the two brothers did not 
recognize each other ; they embraced, and went with 
Bridget, walking peacefully together.* 

In those days the saints of both sexes traversed Ire- 
land, evangelizing and preaching, edifying the faithful 
by their virtues and miracles, and followed by a vast 
crowd, whom imagination and piety drew to their com- 
pany. They visited and instructed each other, cele- 
brating pure and holy agapae like those of the primitive 
Christians. One day Bishop Broon came to Bridget, 
followed by a great number,t but they lost their way in 
the dense woods, and while astray night came on. Now 
it was a cold winter's night. But Bridget, knowing 
what had happened, prayed for them. And lo! the 

♦ Vit, Brigid., auc. Ultan. f Id. 



70 Legendary History 

travellers behold Bridget and her virgins coming. She 
led them with their chariots and horses into a spacious 
house, and showed them Christian hospitality, washing 
their feet, repairing their strength by an abundant nour- 
ishment, and preparing couches, where they soon sank 
into gentle slumbers. They believed, therefore, that 
Bridget was in the midst of them, and really received 
them into her house. Yet Bridget was afar off; and 
when morning came, they beheld around them the forest 
and the spot where they halted the night before, and 
Bridget coming really with her virgins, to offer them a 
real hospitality in her real home j for all that had passed 
in the night was but an illusion, miraculously effected by 
her prayer. 

Amid this hospitable race, in this land where every 
house was open to the stranger, where every tribe had 
its guest master, its Biatach, whose lavish hospitality it 
generously supported, where the harp, and the minstrel's 
song, and the joyous salutation of the host welcomed 
whoever knocked at the door, how could the saints but 
be hospitable ? Happier than many others, they could 
pour out, without exhausting, wine and hydromel ; their 
wealth, inexhaustible like the faith which created it, 
defied all prodigality. Hence, frequently we find kings 
with their suites, their armies even, sit down and eat 
their fill at the ordinary frugal, but ever miraculously 
renewed, table of a poor bishop or anchoret. Some- 
times, even, a holy traveller would come to the succor of 
his host taken by surprise, and the guests, after a mo- 
ment's disquiet, beheld the viands re-appear on the plat- 
ter, and the wine foam again around the goblet's brim. 
Then they blessed God, and the feast went on more 



Op Ireland. 71 

joyful and more Christian than before. Nor was the 
verse or the music wanting there ; for all, austere her- 
mits, mystic virgins, grave abbots, venerable bishops, all 
were children of Erin, and the metallic chords of the 
national harp vibrated harmoniously to Irish ears. 
Bridget entered the dwelling of a king of the country 
of Blioch, and while awaiting the lord of the mansion,* 
Bridget saw harps hanging on the walls. " Let us hear 
some chants," said she. The foster-father of the prince 
and his sons, who were present, excused themselves ; the 
minstrels were away. " But, if the virgin will bless our 
hands," said they, "perhaps they will become skilful." 
Bridget blessed their hands, and they took the harps 
and drew forth sweet accords ; and the king, as he ap- 
proached his home, asked, with surprise, who could per- 
form so well. Nor did they ever after forget the art 
which Bridget had taught them. Such had been her 
welcome gift, — a present as gracious as the sweet and 
amiable virgin who ojffered it. 

And such were always the graces obtained of her. 
Who would have dared to cover himself with her bless- 
ing, in order to do evil ? 

Moreover, she would have divined their projects and 
baffled their cruel passions.f Connall came to her one 
day, bearing magic signs upon him. " We need thy bless- 
ing," said he, " to free us from these signs ; for we must 
go far to seek and slay our foes." " I ask of God," re- 
plied the virgin, " that you may, as you desire, be freed 
from these signs of the demon, that no one may harm 
you or you any one." Connall went his way, and on 

♦ Ultan., Vita Brigidae. t Id. 



72 Legendary History 

arriving in the land of Criothan, took a castle, burned it, 
and killed many, whose heads he brought back in great 
triumph. This was done by night ; but when day came, 
they could not find their sickening trophies, nor trace 
of blood on their weapons or garments. Awe-struck, 
they sent spies to reconnoitre the castle, which they had 
destroyed on the eve, as they supposed ; the castle was 
standing, and its inmates calmly pursuing their avoca- 
tions. 

Connall repented, doubtless, and must soon after have 
thanked the benign and ingenious power which, unable, 
at all times, to pacify these warlike souls, tried to sate 
them, at least, with an appearance of blood, a semblance 
of carnage, or deceived them by innocent illusions. Re- 
turning from an expedition, he entered a castle to pass 
the night. He had Bridget's benediction, and relied on 
it for his defence,* if his enemies endeavored to surprise 
him. They really did spy him out ; and three men en- 
tered the castle to be certain. They did not see Con- 
nall and his warriors, who lay asleep with the heads of 
their fallen enemies beside them. They beheld, seated 
around a large fire, men in monastic garb, each with a 
book open before him. Thus was St. Bridget's client 
saved. 

Such are the accounts of the legendaries. And while 
some gathered these fantastic stories, others related the 
daily wonders of her life and the benefits which her 
solicitous mercy unceasingly scattered over the little and 
the poor. She had passed every where, every where her 
charity had left ineffaceable traces, and the country of 

• . * Ultan., Vita Brigid». 



Op Ireland. 73 

Kildare had not a rivulet, a house, or a stone, which 
did not relate a virtue or a miracle of Bridget.* Can 
we wonder that so alluring a history charmed the 
imagination and the heart of a poetic race, and that the 
sweet form of the heroine shines radiantly amid the 
saints of the legend as the most beautiful star in the sky 
of Ireland? 

* Topog. Hibemiae, 



74 Legendary History 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SAINTS AND THE WOMEN. 

By adopting Bridget as his daughter, before the face 
of assembled Ireland, by elevating her so high, by de- 
claring her publicly as equal to himself, Patrick did not 
obey a mere personal sympathy, nor intend to pay an 
isolated homage to great virtue. He wished, appar- 
ently, to labor in the spirit of Christianity, to emanci- 
pate woman in Ireland. In this way has Christianity 
really consummated woman's redemption, sanctified and 
honored her. Woman was called to the same faith, 
the same sanctity, the same glory in heaven, the same 
honors in the church. Now, to admit that the saint of 
the gentler sex is the equal of the saint of the sterner 
one, is implicitly recognizing that the woman is, or may 
be, the equal of the man. The biblical and evangelical 
principle of woman^s inferiority doubtless subsists, and 
the law promulgated by God, indestructibly established 
and perpetuated by him in the very nature of his crea- 
tures, cannot be recalled ; but that principle is explained. 
The interpretation of Christianity and civilization re- 
places the interpretation of paganism and barbarity ; it 
is understood that woman's inferiority is, so to speak, 
an equality in equality ; that man being first, and wo- 
man second, both are nevertheless alike. Hence it re- 
sults immediately that woman's subordination is a prin- 
ciple of order, not of oppression. Man keeos his pri- 



Op Ireland. . 75 

macy, but woman is free ; there is neither despotism nor 
anarchy. Such is the Christian ideal, the Christian 
idea ; and what would prove its truth, did a Christian 
idea need proof, is the fact that the idea is sometimes 
realized. 

Among savage and barbarous nations, women are 
often mistresses through the passions ; but by the politi- 
cal and civil law, they are, in the state and the family, 
slaves. Nor was the case different in pagan Ireland. 
Patrick had to break alike their sceptre and their yoke, 
extirpate the vice by which they reigned, efface the law 
which enslaved them, in order to confer on them, with 
faith and sanctity. Christian liberty and equality. He 
sought means in a sort of fraternity, in a close alliance 
of works and souls, to speak even more exactly, in a 
spiritual marriage, which he would seem to have been 
desirous of making a regular institution in his church. 
We do not mean that the thought had not been conceived 
or attempted before him ; but undoubtedly no one con- 
ceived it more precisely, attempted it more boldly ; he 
placed there, as elsewhere, the stamp of his lively imagi- 
nation and ardent spirit. 

Women were then welcomed and called ; they were 
admitted, so to speak, to the sanctuary ; it was shared 
with them, occupied in common. Double, even mixed 
monasteries, or monasteries so near to each other as 
to form but one, brought the two sexes together for 
mutual edification ; men became instructors of women, 
women of men ; monks were governed by abbesses, and 
nuns by abbots ; for the doctrine and practice of the 
church, as to the subordination of women, were actually 
forgotten in this fervent association and holy emancipa- 
tion. These establishments, of which we can trace the 



76 Legendary History 

vestiges better in the British and Saxon churches, origi- 
nated in Ireland ; they were propagated by the propa- 
ganda of the Irish missionaries. " The saints of the 
early times/' says the author of the Catalogue of Irish 
Saints, " did not repulse the direction or society of wo- 
men ; founded on Christ, as on the rock, they feared not 
the blast of temptation.'' * 

AVomen, it is true, seem to have given pledges to the 
church. Before St. Patrick, we see Menna, Susanna, and 
Libaria, sisters of St. Eliphius and St. Eucharius, follow 
their brethren in their pious exile in Gaul, and, like them, 
endure martyrdom. At Patrick's voice, they responded, 
and amid the multitude whom his word drew after him, 
in his wandering apostleship in Ireland, women were 
neither the least numerous nor the least ardent. Aethn€ 
the fair, and Fethl^ the rosy, were but the first fruits 
of a rich and gladdening harvest; perhaps, too, the 
daughters of Eochad were not alone in confessing Christ 
at the expense of their sufferings and blood. Thousands 
of virgins devoted themselves to God ; more than once 
did an angel come to float the mystic veil over their 
heads, and thus show, in an unspeakable manner, that 
these new betrothed ones found favor in the eyes of their 
divine spouse. Heya and Piala formed with Fingar 
that first cohort sent by Ireland to the Britons, still, 
or already, too un- Christian. Many imitators, many 
pupils, many rivals gathered around Bridget. Some 
equalled not merely the purity of the saints, — they re- 
newed the rigorous asceticism of the most austere. 
Thrice did the deep and icy water in which St. Bridget 
remained during the long hours of night, retire and 

* Usher. 



Of Ireland. 77 

dry up before her ; * God himself intervePxing to moder- 
ate the excess of her zeal. Others had that spirit of 
interior contemplation, of ecstasy, that mystic tenderness 
which the greatest possess or desire. Daria was blind 
from birth ; once, while conversing with Bridget, she 
said, "Bless my eyes, that I may see the world and 
gratify my longing." The night was dark ; it grew 
light for her, and the world appeared to her gaze. But 
when she had beheld it, she turned again to Bridget. 
" Now close my eyes," said she, " for the more a man is 
absent from the world, the more present he is before 
God." 

These were sure and worthy companions for Patrick's 
disciples ; and these spiritual marriages promised fruits 
of benediction and grace ; for St. Patrick did not con- 
fine himself to this common society of men and women in 
the bosom of the church, of which we have just spoken ; 
individual associations were formed. Bridget herself, 
spiritual daughter of St. Patrick, as she was, received 
from his hands a friend and a guide. " It is unbecom- 
ing," he said, one day, " that you should henceforward 
be without a priest." f He gave her Natfrohic, who 
never left her. Ninnid subsequently succeeded him — 
that Ninnid surnamed the pure handed j a name whose 
origin is a legend in itself. 

Ninnid was a young scholar, not over reverent, it 
would seem, X whom the influence of Bridget, one day, 
suddenly overcame. The saint announced to him that 
from his hand she should for the last time receive the 
Body and Blood of our Lord. Ninnid resolved that his 
hand should remain pure for so high and holy an office ; 



Animosus, Vita Brigidse. f Ultan., Yita Brigidae. J Animosus. 

7* 



78 Legendary History 

lie enclosed it in an iron case ; and wishing, at the same 
time, to postpone, as far as lay in him, the moment that 
was to take Bridget from Ireland, he set out for Brit- 
tany, throwing the key of the box into the sea. But the 
designs of God are immutable ; when Bridget's hour 
had'come, Ninnid was driven by a tempest on the Irish 
coast, and the key was miraculously given up by the deep. 

It was a friendship of soul to soul, whence both de- 
rived aid, happiness, and consolation. It migiit be pre- 
cious to the strong ; and great were they who could 
walk alone in life, resting on God alone. " It is not ne- 
cessary for thee to have a friend of thy soul," said the 
angel to St. Aidan ; " God loves thee, and between God 
and thee there will be no intermediary one ; but if thou 
wishest a friend for thy soul, thou shalt have Molv^, the 
widow." 

Nothing is more pure, more elevated, more touching. 
When Christianity can possess itself of man's passions 
and sentiments, it idealizes, spiritualizes, and transfigures 
them ; it seeks to sanctify, not destroy them. Now, there 
are in our hearts two loves, or our love may tend at 
the same time to two objects, our fellow-men and God. 
One of these aspirations is merely human ; the other 
half divine. To withdraw our instincts of love from the 
creature, our fellow-man, and direct them to God alone, 
is suppressing one sentiment and preserving the other. 
Should we suppress aught that the Author of our being 
has planted in us ? But to take a human sentiment, the 
love of man for man, to affiance souls, and make this 
union, — natural as it is, and m.ystic too, — make it tend to 
the sanctification of present destiny, and the preparation 
of that that is to come, is perfecting man ; it is infusing 
a part of the divinity into a human sentiment. 



Of Ireland. 79 

Unhappily, good is hard to do, and it is, perhaps, even 
more dangerous to seek the ideal. In this intimate 
alliance of the earthly and heavenly, the element which 
should absorb or control may sometimes not control suffi- 
ciently, or even be itself absorbed. The legend of Nin- 
nid is pure and holy ; and yet there is in it a vein of 
vivid romance, in which we can already trace the sen- 
timents which these unions might produce, the dangers 
which might result from them for less firm or less perfect 
souls. 



80 Legendary History 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SAINTS AND THE WOMEN — (CONTINTJED.) 

Patrick, in the accomplishment of his generous 
thought, often, doubtless, experienced great and tender 
joy ; often, doubtless, this heavenly friendship, these 
holy associations living with a single heart in the 
bosom of faith, that tender union of purified souls 
which presented to his eyes the spectacle of a faithful 
people marching onward to heaven hand in hand, offered 
him ravishing joy and unspeakable consolation. But 
he had also at times to experience cruel doubts and 
bitter anxiety. A\\ were not saints in Ireland ; all 
had not even that simplicity which makes men believe 
another's virtue ; that modesty which makes them re- 
spect it. Suspicions sprang up ; accusations arose, and 
reached the fame of those most dear to him. Broon, 
one of his disciples, heard a woman charge her shame 
on him ;* it was in the assembly of Tailten, in the face 
of all Ireland. Nor was Liupita, the apostle's sister, 
spared ; t and the holy Bishop Moel, was, they said, the 
accomplice of her crime. 

The calumniators were confounded ; but Patrick's 
apostolic heart must have been cruelly wounded ; and, 
unfortunately, real facts awakened his disquiet. One 
of Bridget's sisterhood, Darlughacha, neglected to watch 

* TJltan, Vita Brigidae. f Evinus, Vita Patricii. 



Op Ireland. 81 

over her eyes, and profane love entered her soul. Brid- 
get saw her arise by night, and go forth to meet her lover. 
As she was about to cross the threshold, a violent com- 
bat arose in her soul ; for passion was strong within her, 
and strong was faith, the fear of God, and of Bridget. 
Ardor had to be checked by ardor, flame by flame ; 
she placed her feet on burning coals ; and the flesh was 
overcome only by a long and painful effort.* 

Benignus was one of the beloved disciples of Patrick ; 
God had given him an harmonious voice. A virgin, 
consecrated to Christ, felt her heart troubled by the 
chant which should have edified her soul while charm- 
ing her ears ; and there she was, wandering in her folly, 
devoured with the desires which her passion prompted. 
She feigned illness, and asked for Benignus ; from 
him, she declared, she wished to receive communion. 
Benignus answered her summons ; but Patrick watched 
over him ; and when Benignus appeared at the unhappy 
woman's door, she beheld him whom her love profaned, 
suddenly magnified into a gigantic and terrible form ; 
his face shone with a light that illumined the whole 
house ; the glance of his eye sounded the very depths 
of the culprit's heart ; near him stood Patrick, his hands 
extended over the disciple whom he protected.f 

She, too, like Darlughaca, was cured of her madness. 
Bridget had succored her daughter, Patrick had pre- 
served his son ; but were Bridget and Patrick to be 
ever at hand to sustain the weak ? 

If, seated on the summit of Cruachan-Eli, Patrick had 
called to him all the virgins of his church, more than 
one countenance would have paled or blushed beneath 

* Animosus, Life of Bridget. t Jocelyn, Vita Patricii. 



82 Legendary History 

the white veil. If, ranging on another side the priestly 
and monastic legion, he had sounded its serried ranks, 
more than one heart would have palpitated under the 
rude vestment or the episcopal cross. 

But listen ; for this is the most secret avowal of the 
sons and daughters of Ireland, the last words of their 
confession : 

" Carthag, thou wast Kieran's disciple ; and thou 
didst learn sanctity under the discipline of Lidania ; 
shouldst thou not have been stronger, and did it need a 
terrible and yet aiding flame to come and separate you 
by drying up the eyes whose light, empoisoned by the 
evil one, was hurrying to destruction two predestined 
souls ? * 

" Virgin of Druim-aird, the eye of Aidan, thy bishop, 
has beheld the remorse laid up in the secret chamber 
of thy conscience ; penance is holy, but less holy than 
innocence, t 

" Macness, thou hast purified thyself ; thou art a bish- 
op ; forget not that thou hast not been ever pure, and 
be humble, remembering that thou didst one day sully 
thy master's school and family.:]: 

" And thou, Darerca, since the fruit of thy weakness 
has found favor before the Lord, be consoled and hope ; 
but remain prostrate before God, as thou hast been be- 
fore me on the road where thou hast done penance." § 

Thrice heart-broken and desolate had she prostrated 
herself in the dust ; thrice had the primate driven his 
cliariot over her. 

Few faults, doubtless, if the legend has reckoned all ; 
faults expiated by heroic penance ! but still too numer- 

* Vita Kieran. f Vita Aidi. X Evinus, Vita Patricii. § Id. 



Of Ireland. 83 

ous for Patrick's holy severity. By a just providence, 
moreover, the dangerous experiment which he had tried 
in his church was especially painful to his heart ; the 
weight fell on himself; his disciples, his sisters, had 
fallen! 

This hard lesson at least was not lost. Liupita and 
Moel had confounded the calumny which reached them ;* 
prodigies had attested their innocence ; but Patrick's 
soul was saddened, and doubt had come upon him. 
"Henceforth," said he to Moel, "fish no more in the 
fields, reap no more in the rivers ; depart from Liupita ; 
we must not tempt God." Moel dwelt at Ard-achadh ; 
Liupita took up her residence at Druimcaoin ; the 
mountain of Bri-Leith was between them. 

From that day, the men consecrated to the church, 
the women vowed to God, lived apart ; and the rule, 
once established by St. Patrick, was observed by his 
disciples, and rigorously followed by his successors. 

In a Life of St. Senanus, quaintly rhymed by an 
anonymous author, a woman comes to his convent door. 
"What have women," said the prelate — "what have 
women in common with monks ? We will not receive 
thee, nor any like thee." " What ! " said she to the 
bishop, "if thou believest that my spirit can receive 
Jesus Christ, why repulse my body ? " " I believe thee," 
he said, " but no woman shall ever enter here. Go ; 
God save thy soul, but go, return to the world ; among 
us thou wouldst give scandal ; thy heart may be chaste, 
but the sex is in thy body." t 

* Evinus, Yita Patricii. 
•j" Yita Senani, (Colgan.) — 

" Cui, Praesul — Quid feminis 

Commune est cum monachis ? 

Nee te nee ullam aliam, 

Admittemus in insulam." 



84 Legendary History 

Yet this woman was Kynrecha ; and she had been 
miraculously borne by an angel to the convent door! 
" Before I leave this place," said she to St. Senanus, " I 
offer this prayer to God, that my soul may leave the 
body." And she sank down expiring. But the saints, 
once put on their guard, watched with restless vigi- 
lance, penetrated as it were with a salutary fear. Even 
Bridget found anchorets intractable enough to avoid 
her presence,* and refuse to answer her call. She 
smiled, and punished them with her usual indulgence ; 
they repented and came. Who could resist Bridget? 
Still later, Columbkill, privileged by God, like Bridget 
and Patrick, unalterable and tranquil like them, doubt- 
less feared no more than they the sweet commerce that 
others had to forego. " Bear to Mangina," t said he, 
one day, " this water, that I have just blessed, and it 
will heal her ; and, moreovet, I will put in the cover 
of the vase twenty years of life, that the holy virgin 
will pass in this world after her cure." Few abbots, 
few bishops even, would have dared to send a woman this 
picturesque and affectionate message. Comgen asked 
that Mida should come and close his lips and eyes in 
death. " For I know," said he, " that all whom thy hand 
shall thus touch shall be led by angels to the kingdom 
of God." But Mida is, after Bridget, the most glorious 
virgin of Ireland ; t Comgen was one of the most fer- 
vent pillars of the church, and this was the homage of a 
dying man. 

In general, then, they kept on the defensive. They 
went further ; it seems that the spirit of barbarism, so 



* Ultan. Vita Brigidse. f Adamnan, "Vita Columbse. 

+ Vita MedjE, (Colgan.) 



Op Ireland. 85 

quickly, perhaps too quickly, driven back by the first 
outburst of the Christian sentiment, reacted a little later. 
Thus, in the twelfth century, Giraldus found churches 
in Ireland closed to women,* certain holy isles they could 
not enter under penalty of death. In the primitive 
days of Irish Christianity, such laws had not been 
formed, such anathemas not drawn up. This harsh 
sanctity, this rude purity, this strange kind of material 
mysticism, belongs to another time, and corresponds 
rather to the theology of Ratramn and Paschasuis Rad- 
bert than to that of Patrick and Columban. 

If woman cannot be a sure instrument of salvation for 
man, as purely spiritual saints have dreamed ; if woman, 
wishing to lean on man, often falls ; if these spiritual 
unions remain unsullied only between natures already 
angelic, this is enough to justify many measures of 
precaution, and much prudent severity. But this great 
anger is strange : the contempt still more so. If man 
pronounces anathema on the woman, she may well re- 
turn it; and an equitable umpire could not, it would 
seem, condemn one without the other ; and if man, in 
such a case, could equitably judge his own cause, would 
he denounce on himself half his wrath, and half his 
contempt ? 

Moreover, this anger should be just as great as the 
peril under which one has fallen, or which has been 
avoided. The saints give us, then, the measure of their 
strength or their weakness, at the same time as of their 
light ; milder when they are stronger and more enlight- 
ened, more violent when they are less enlightened and 
more weak. 

* Topog. Hibemise 

8 



86 Legendary History 

Yet the women of Ireland might take consolation and 
assurance. If men could be saints only far from them, 
they could be holy far from men ; they continued to 
embalm with their virtues the churches not closed to 
them, the solitudes where their cells could be isolated 
enough. Their names are still numerous in the cata- 
logues; almost all are so modest, that one might say 
that they felt it a duty to hide even the scandal of 
their merits from that austere church. 



Of Ireland. 87 



CHAPTER XI 



GENERAL STATE OE MANNERS IN IRELAND, AND THE 
INFLUENCE OF THE SAINTS. 



Patrick's disciples had then learned to guard against 
the snares which even innocence may inyoluntarily lay 
for sanctity. But if they were suspicious and rigorous 
for themselves, they did not cease to be just, and often 
merciful and indulgent for others. We must even ad- 
mit that, vehement against certain faults, intractable 
against a certain resistance, terrible for certain adver- 
saries, they showed themselves, under other circum- 
stances, incorruptible but clement judges. When they 
smote, it was with half-checked arm ; when they wound- 
ed, it was to heal the better ; and they stooped, to effect 
these happy cures, to the mildest, most ingenious, most 
paternal means. 

Concraidh was a powerful king of Osrig. Aethne, 
wife of King Aengus, was smitten with his beauty, his 
generous hospitality, and loved him. Concraidh would 
not betray his friend and host ; and the lovesick queen 
languished, and was soon at the verge of the grave ; at 
least she said so. In this extremity, and as it was 
April, adds the quaint chronicler, " she asked Concraidh 
to give her at least some mulberries, or else she would 
die. What snare was there in this singular request? 
We know not ; but, luckily, Concraidh was a friend of 
St. Kieran, and the holy man gave him some mulberries 



88 Legendary History 

that his hand had blessed. Scarcely had Queen Aethne 
lifted these to her lips, when she recovered, with her 
reason, health of mind and body.* 

The wife -of King Cohing loved King Concolor ; she 
swore that she would marry him. What would have 
become of Cohing ? More than one crime was doubtless 
plotted ; for these Irish amours have sometimes a tragic 
history. But St. Kieran was nigh, and that agitated 
heart found calm once more.t 

Brunecha had given herself to God. She had the 
misfortune to please Dymma, and the amorous prince 
declared to Kieran that he would give up Brunecha if 
the cry of the stork should wake him the next morning ; 
now it was midwinter, and the snow was falling in 
dense flakes. Yet, with the morrow, there was no snow 
in the city ; the storks were perched on the roof-trees, 
and their cry awaked the prince. Brunecha returned 
to her cell.J But Dymma still loved her ; he soon came 
in pursuit of her. This time the saint was more severe. 
Brunecha was struck dead ; the city, with the king's 
palace, were given up to the flames, his young son per- 
ishing in the conflagration. Then Dymma bitterly de- 
plored his fault. But when he had sufficiently bewailed 
it, and when he was sure of his heart, Brunecha returned 
to life. The legend of the Bollandists says no more ; 
but who will believe that Kieran did not restore to the 
contrite prince, son, and city, and palace ? The name 
of the saint was invoked ; the castle, the child, and the 
city were saved ; the legend of Kilkenny affirms it ; it 
ought to know best. 

The naturally tender heart of the Irish saints had 

* Vita Kierani, (BoUand.) Vita Kierani, (Capgrave.) % ^^ 



Of Ireland. 89 

compassion then for the weakness of the heart, especially 
on those whose vocation and state did not bend them 
to an entire and superhuman perfection. Some of the 
greatest and purest had had their moments of trouble. 
Others, before entering the narrow way of the church, 
had followed the broader way of the world. They had 
half seen the illusions, the enchantress forms, that, flit- 
ting by the wayside, tempt the traveller, and misleading, 
hurry him into the snares of the evil one. At Drium- 
Aird, Aidus accepted the penance of a guilty nun.* 
Elsewhere, to wrest a daughter of the church from her 
ravisher, he condemned her to die ; perhaps she was not 
innocent. But when the ravisher had done penance, 
Aidus would not have the virgin pay so dearly a fault 
already atoned. She revived and lived. The good 
saint, become a bishop, remembered, doubtless, the some- 
what rash adventures of his youth ; he pardoned as he 
corrected. Finally, remarkable, surely, and rare fact, 
women were equally merciful. Thrice, for example, 
Mida beheld virgins of her sisterhood fall ; thrice, with 
the same charity, did she raise the fallen ones, or 
patiently await tlieir repentance.t 

To judge the conduct of the saints, to appreciate their 
severity, or their indulgence, we must consider what 
was passing around them, and what were Irish manners 
and morals in their day. 

The most charming qualities of woman — and this is, 
perhaps, one of the most delicate mysteries of moral 
life, and the salvation of souls — are closely linked with 
their most dangerous weaknesses. What is most seduc- 
tive in them, is, at the same time, so dangerous, that 

* Vita Aidi, (Colgan.) t "^ita Midae, (Colgan.) 

S* 



9k) Legendary History 

we know not whether to hate or love. Good and evil 
were not more intimately united, more sublimely min- 
gled, in the very fruit whose substance was the essence 
of good and evil. Now, if, on one side, considering the 
impetuous and sensitive nature of this poetic race, the 
passionate liberty of the state in which they then lived, 
and the privileged beauty, of which it offered the most 
elegant and perfect models, we may conceive the resist- 
less torrent that would bear away the sons and daugh- 
ters of Erin, — on the other, reading these veracious le- 
gends, we must infer that they often were carried away. 
The examples which they give can be reckoned indeed, 
but still they are pretty numerous. What, then, would 
it be were we reading the history, not of Irish sanctity, 
but of Irish weakness ? 

We are here to give this difficult history ; it will 
suffice for the subject to gather from the lives of the 
saints some characteristic traits ; they will, perhaps, aid 
us to understand what the saints had to do. 

" How long wilt thou thus remain living with us, 
without using thy marital rights ? " asked two Irish 
women of their common husband.* "As long," he re- 
plied, " as discord prevails between you." Some time 
after, as he heard them still quarrelling, he left them, 
and finding a bark on the sea side, he went to a little 
island, where he lived so long that the hair of his body 
made him a garment as thick as the down of birds ; and 
Brendan, who had seen him, found him happy. We 
can see here only an unfaithful allegory ; and not all the 
husbands in Ireland would have envied this life and 
plumage. Moreover, polygamy is not a school of mo- 

* Vita Brendani, (Capgraye.) 



Of Ireland. 91 

rality ; and in the most refined harems, graces, not 
virtues, are found. Let us then leave St. Brendan and 
his doubtful story. 

" One of thy comrades, whom thou dost not mistrust,'' 
said Columbkill to Goreus, one of the most valiant men 
in Ireland, "shall cause thy death." "Perhaps some 
one of them seeks to kill me," replied Goreus ; " or else 
my wife, for love of some younger man, will kill me by 
witchcraft."* But perhaps Goreus was jealous; per- 
haps he even slandered his partner. And then would 
his example, and others, too, prove that the Irish women 
were addicted to adultery and witchcraft ? 

Dympna was the daughter of a pagan king. The 
queen died, and her father every where sought a woman 
to. succeed her. None was fair enough. Dympna alone 
could replace her mother ; this was announced to her. 
Prayers, menaces, presents, love, and fury, all were em- 
ployed ; all were useless against the now Christian 
princess. But flight did not save her ; her father fol- 
lowed her to Brabant, where, in a fit of fury and de- 
spair, he slew her with his own hand. But this story 
has quite the air of a Brabancon invention. And then, 
what would it prove against Irish princes ? 

Yet, if we gather all these traits ; if we consider that 
in that country natural children mixed with the legiti- 
mate family, and shared in the inheritance ; if we con- 
sider that, counting merely among the most illustrious 
saints, Comgall was born of incest, Aidan of a sacrilege, 
Albeus of adultery, and Fursey of a weakness, it must 
be avowed that all these facts, added to those already 
given, become most significative. 

* Adamnan, Vita Columbse. f Vita Dympnse-Messingham. 



92 Legendaey History 

Bridget herself, the saint among all the saints, pure 
among the purest,^ was the child of an unlawful love. 
Brosecha was in the house of Dubtach, and the master 
was seduced by the fair qualities of the slave. Dub- 
tach's wife, seeing Brosecha's condition, asked her hus- 
band to sell her, lest the unlawful issue should conspire 
against her own children. Dubtach long refused, for 
he loved his slave ; and when he sold the mother, he 
would not sell the fruit of her womb : a magician had 
foretold to him that that fruit should be glorious. 

Here we see one of the causes, and at the same time 
the strongest proof, of the corruption of manners in Ire- 
land ; slavery implies prostitution, being at once the 
saddest and best excuse for it. 

Christianity intervened in the midst of these disor- 
ders. When the magicians had been succeeded in the 
ancient assemblies by bishops, and customs by canons, — 
above all, when the new dogmas and precepts had sunk 
into men's minds by the preaching and example of an 
innumerable and zealous church, — as minds became en- 
lightened, manners became more sound. How this 
reform was prepared, how this regeneration was ef- 
fected, what mixture of solicitude and firmness, severity 
and indulgence, were employed by the apostles and spir- 
itual guides of Ireland, we have been enabled to see, 
and may judge. 

There are traits of character and signs of race that 
nothing can destroy ; they may be purified, but not 
effaced. The vivacity of the imagination, the sensibility 
of the heart, the adoration of beauty and grace, like 
grace itself and beauty, may survive mad and evil pas- 

* Ultan, Vita Brigidae. 



Op Ireland. 93 

sions ; and the delicate instances of an elegant and poetic 
race appear in the purest parts of the Irish legend. 
Mida fell asleep ; during her slumber a luminous atmos- 
phere encircled her ; it was divine love thus rendered 
visible. On her awaking, her countenance shone with 
an angelic beauty ; never before had her beauty been 
so resplendent ; never again was it seen so ; and yet, 
adds the narrator, Mida was very beautiful.^ Almost 
all the virgins whom Ireland honors were beautiful. 
When Bridget was of marriageable age, they wished to 
give her a husband; to escape the love of men, she 
sacrificed her beauty. But when she took the veil, and 
the peril was past, she recovered it.t It would seem 
that the holiest of virgins, the patron of Irish women, 
should blend in her sanctity and grace all the virtues, all 
the powers, of woman, all her delicacy, all her instincts. 

The charm of these sweet countenances does not 
trouble the church, and adorns the calendar ; there is 
neither use nor merit in disfiguring the saints, and to 
make them ugly is certainly a devotion that cannot be 
particularly agreeable to them. 

All legends have not these attractive scenes and per- 
sonages of the Irish legend ; they have often forgotten 
to paint them, or neglected to embellish them ; some- 
times they have fairly sought ugliness. 

If we study Irish manners in the rest of her legend, 
we do not find that the saints there had much less to do. 
The legend is not history ; but when, after reading 
the biographers, we consult the annalists, we recognize 
what we had caught glimpses of in the Acta, the features, 
and physiognomy of the people, whose moral and 

• Colgan, Vita Mid®. fUltan. Vita Brigidae. 



94 Legendary History 

social existence histories relate more at length, but not 
better. 

We know what Ireland's organization was. It formed 
but a single family, sprung from Heber and Heremon. 
Their stock, with a power of multiplication not yet ex- 
hausted, had thrcTwn out its vigorous shoots on every 
side ; and the whole island was soon covered with its 
branches. The chart of the Irish monarchy was a great 
genealogical tree. The individual belonged to the 
family, the family to the clan, the clan to a great tribe, 
the tribe to a nation, which was the great and true 
family, having abroad no aj0&nity, no alliance. In the 
nation all the clans were kindred, in the clan all were 
brothers. Such a constitution would be the best, had 
it not been the worst in barbaric times. This univer- 
sal and perpetual solidarity, which, in another state of 
things, would be all-powerful for good and peace, then, 
on the contrary, became the solidarity of evil, of violence. 
Family wars and enmities are cruel, because they are 
unnatural ; they are inextinguishable, because liered- 
itary ; they multiply and extend, as the family, with- 
out separating, extends and multiplies. 

The Irish people were then, in general, a great, bar- 
barous family, in . a state of intestine war. We may 
imagine the violent, bloody passions, the fierce manners, 
which such circumstances must have created and devel- 
oped. Amid virtues and miracles, contemplative recol- 
lection or evangelical labor, we hear in the legend the 
din of war, we s^ee the conquered or the victims fall, 
the conquerors or assassins pass on with their chant of 
triumph. Some lives even are living pictures of this 
stormy history ; and the life of St. Findan, for example, 
is the truest, most curious, and, perhaps, most absorbing, 



Of Ireland. 95 

chapter of Irish history, at the time of the Norwegian 
and Danish invasions. The apostles, moreover, and the 
bishops who succeeded them, rushed of themselves into 
this conflict ; and we have seen their ardent zeal, their 
energetic action, their frequent and decisive interven- 
tion. We find traces of it in their legends, and we 
have thus had glimpses of scenes of murder, oppression, 
and crime. And others, too, could be counted. 

One day that Columbkill was seated, with his disci- 
ples, on the banks of the waters of Ce, and a bard, who 
had been conversing with them, went his way, one said 
to the saint, " Why did we not ask Coron'an, before he 
left, to chant us some noble poem ? " And Columbkill 
replied, " Why do you hold such vain discourse? Could 
I ask the wretched man for a joyful chant — ask it of one 
whom death has already overtaken ? " In fact, as the 
saint uttered these words, a man who had just crossed 
the stream cried out, " The bard who was talking to 
you has just been killed on the road by his enemies." * 

Mida beheld two fratricides perpetrated almost be- 
fore her eyes.f A furious father pursued his daughter ; 
he was going to assassinate her in the arms, under the 
mantle, of Diaconus, the venerable master of Columba. 
To arrest him, Columba had to strike him dead. X 

These savage scenes troubled the repose of the calm- 
est retreats. " Come no nearer," said Fanchea to En- 
deus, " for thou art stained with blood, and the life of a 
man." § And the saints, in the depths of their peaceful 
solitudes, amid their meditations or evangelical confer- 
ences, felt their serenity troubled when their prophetic 



* Adamnan, Vita Columbse. f Vita Midae, (Colgan.) 

I Adamnan, Vita Columbge. § Vita End, (Colgan.) 



96 Legendary History 

thought presaged the bloody tumults, of which those 
now pure spots were to be one day the theatre. " 
Comgell," cried Columbkill, sadly, " this little fountain, 
from which we are now drawing, — the day will come 
when it shall no longer be fit for man's use, so thick will 
it be with human blood ; for here the men of thy race 
and mine shall meet iu battle, and one of mine shall be 
slain, and his blood, mingling with that of others, shall 
flow into this fountain and fill it to the brim.'' 

What part did the saints fill in this violent and trou- 
bled state of society ? We know already. They rushed 
between enernies, and through unchained passions, preach- 
ing peace, reconciling enmities, arresting vengeance, de- 
fending the weak, taking in hand the cause of innocence, 
snatching the victim from the executioner, separating 
armies, arresting invasion, opposing the gospel to the 
sword, persuasion to violence, or else, when need be, the 
omnipotence of good to the power of evil, the invincible 
force of supernatural power to the excess of human 
power. 

This is not all : these are but isolated facts, individual 
acts ; this is especially only the active and direct mani- 
festation of their influence : now, this influence acts still, 
and, perhaps, more efficaciously, in an indirect, and, so to 
say, a passive manner, by example and contrast. 

Christianity, in fact, with its pacific brotherhood, its 
spirit of charity, humility, pardon, and patience, off'ered 
a strange contrast to the fraternity of arms, the right of 
war, the law of vengeance, the spirit of pride — in fine, all 
the principles of Irish society. Ireland, thenceforward, 
seemed divided into two peoples, two societies, two 

• Adamnan Vita Columbae. 



Op Ireland. 97 

worlds — the world of the church and the legend, the 
world of the clan and history; on one side, darkness, 
with the clash of arms and the din of battle, the angry 
voice and cry of murder, the tumult of unchained pas- 
sions, and the outburst of barbarous transports ; on the 
other, in a light of undecided, but serene transparency, 
gentle looks, the silence of recollection, or the har- 
monious murmur of prayer, the simplicity of evangelical 
actions, and the sweet expansion of charity. 

Happily, the light did not tend to keep aloof from the 
darkness, but, on the contrary, to enter and dissipate it, 
bearing with it the quickening and virtue-giving atmos- 
phere that the saints already breathed. Gerald, the 
Cambrian, has transmitted to us a story that bears the 
look of an allegory.* Ireland had no bees — such is a 
tradition, true or false, that goes back to ancient times. 
St. David then directed in Britain, that great school 
where so many glorious disciples were formed. Men- 
dubdauc came from the depths of Ireland ; and during 
the long years of his stay, the many hives, Menevia's 
riches, were confided to his care. But when the time 
came for him to return to Ireland, the bees would not 
leave him. Thrice did he bear them back to their cells ; 
thrice did they cluster around him, and follow him to his 
vessel. Then the brethren and the holy abbot allowed 
him to depart with them. The bees of Menevia pros- 
pered in their new home ; their honey was ever as 
sweet, and the Irish forests were soon perfumed with 
their honeycombs. 

The real bees of Menevia were, according to a com- 
mon expression in legendaries, the saints formed by 

♦ Topog. Hibemiae. 



98 Legendary History 

British masters, who came back to Ireland laden with 
the sweet treasures of Christian lore and Christian 
charity ; and the honey which then, for the first time, 
perfumed Erin's woodlands, was that spirit of tender- 
ness and grace that the gospel there exhaled. 

Amid those explosions of wrath, those fierce hearts, 
ever playing with life and death at their sword's point, 
amid that ever reeking blood, new sentiments arose, 
beneficent, restorative ; the spirit of preservation and 
love met that of hatred and destruction. It was a uni- 
versal and expansive love, extending in its effusion to 
all, enveloping in a kind of noble brotherhood all crea- 
tures, all the works of God. For to love and respect 
the creature was also to love and respect the Creator. 

This comprehensive tenderness ; this sympathy for all 
that lives and can suffer ; this immense charity of the 
gospel, that seems to dilate at will and envelop the 
world, is found in all legends, in the heart of most 
saints. It is a kind of pantheism, but a pantheism 
which respects human dignity, and eaalts, instead of 
debasing ; which enlarges and ennobles duty, instead 
of suppressing it ; which consecrates the order of nature, 
instead of confounding it ; which quickens, moralizes, 
poetizes, and hallows the relations of man to other be- 
ings ; which makes man's heart and soul the heart and 
soul of nature, and which gives humanity a charming 
part and a touching ministry ; it is Christian pantheism, 
the pantheism of charity. These amiable instincts so 
foreign to the bosom of barbarous society, but acting 
so powerfully on it, this touching and wholesome ex- 
aggeration of charity, which spares beings devoid of 
reason and loves them, the better to teach man to 
spare and love man, are marked at every page on the 



Op Ireland. 99 

Irish legend, and are manifested by traits of quaint 
simplicity. 

" I hope/' said Columbkill, one day, " I hope that this 
steel which I bless, may never be the instrument of harm 
to any creature." That same day, the hallowed knife 
was thrice tried, and thrice refused to shed the blood of 
an inoffensive beast.*^ 

Kiewin, during the days of Lent, had retired to a 
solitude, where, under a narrow cabin, which scarcely 
sheltered his head, he remained in prayer or ecstacy, 
motionless, his arms raised to heaven ', birds flew around 
him, and came with equal security to repose on his arms, 
or the branches of the neighboring trees, less motionless 
than himself. One of them, says the popular tradition, 
came and placed in his hand the first twigs of the nest 
which she prepared ; when the saint perceived it, he 
would, not trouble the young mother's labor ; he waited 
in prayer till summer came and the young birds had 
flown. t 

This goodness manifested in stories or allegories is 
not disclosed only by marks of accidental sensibility. 
This protection was more extended and more durable ; 
it covered the whole species, and was perpetuated after 
the death of the saint ; it opened, amid the plains and 
forests, vast asylums, where hunted fowl and timid deer 
might rush for refuge ; :|: where none would dare to pur- 
sue them, none could with impunity reach them. Uni- 
versal peacemakers, enemies of all violence, adversaries 
of all oppression, they would, doubtless, have fain re- 
stored between men and animals the compact established 
by God in the days of primitive innocence. Hence 

* Adamnan, Vita S. Columbse. t Topog. Hibemiae. J Id. 



100 Legendaey History 

those singular associations, those adventures that excite 
a smile and furnish a poet's theme. 

Kieran's first disciple was a terrible wild boar, that 
he found by his fountain Fuaran. When the cell arose, 
the disciple worked at it with all his tusks and all his 
strength. A fox, a badger, a fawn, and a wolf, came 
to the same school ; all profited more or less. The fox, 
a wily beast, inclined to evil, one day forwent his good 
purposes, plunged into the depths of the forest, and 
joined his comrades. " Why, brother, didst thou com- 
mit this action ? " asked Kieran, when he had brought 
him back. " It is unworthy of a monk. The water that 
we drink here is pure, and we share it as our suste- 
nance ; and if, according to your nature, you wish to 
eat flesh meat, God would have enabled us to find it in 
the bark of these trees." The culprit did penance. In 
all these names of animals we may see names of men ; 
in these beasts, corrected and subjected to rule, we may 
see an allegory. But legendaries are not fabulists ; 
their narratives are full of such stories ; we can see in 
them only the simple marks of a benevolent sanctity, 
an ingenuous faith, a charity full of efi'usion. It seems 
that every creature may be good, and should be happy. 

Simple souls, easy hearts, ears open to every call, 
moved at every danger, feeling for every want, ever yield- 
ing to the impulse of charity, they did not always even 
take time to consult their conscience, or foresee the dis- 
advantages of their benefits. Some robbers are pursued ; 
they invoke Kieran, and escape.* Where is justice? 
A woman is poor ; Aidan gives her an ox ; but the ox 
was not his. What will the owner say ? Wolves are 

* Lect. Offic. Kieran. 



Op Ireland. 101 

hungry. Aidan gives them his master's sheep.* What 
will his master say, and what will the sheep say? A 
miracle comes in ; the robbers become monks ; another 
ox comes out of the sea ; the devoured sheep come back. 
But this is, perhaps, tempting God, and forgetting 
human laws. 

We must not press the legend too closely. What we 
must see in it, what it attests, is the spirit of mildness 
and benignity in the saints ; the tenderness and effusion 
of their charity. Sentiments before unknown were re- 
vealed to Ireland, and the spectacle of this beneficent 
clemency in the church must have awakened, in the 
depth of souls which were a prey to the passions of 
barbarism, the better instincts of human nature, and the 
sweet virtues of Christian civilization. 

What fruits did the church of Ireland finally gather 
from that land thus energetically turned up, thus labo- 
riously cultivated and watered with so much sweat, 
solicited with such perseverance and love ? The saints, 
according to Patrick's advice, had been for it at the 
same time, by their burning zeal, their unctuous and 
penetrating charity, the sun and the dew. Did it re- 
spond to their efforts and their hopes? We shall see 
hereafter. 

What we can now say, what we have seen, is, that the 
work at its outset presented a magnificent appearance. 
If the toil was ardent, the laborers might, too, promise 
themselves an abundant harvest. Faith is the root of 
all religious virtue ; where it germs we may count on 
fruits of salvation. Now, it seems that in the outset, in 
this vigorous virgin soil of Ireland, it was planted with 

* Vita Aidan, (Capgrave.) 

9* 



102 Legendary History 

singular promptness and energy. It must have appeared 
immediately that it would surely be lovely, immortal, 
perhaps, and indestructible, so simple, strong, and up- 
right was it. 

" I will not make the trial with thee," said Lasran to 
Munnu ; " for we know that if thou saidst to Mount 
Marge, ' Go to Legh-Lene,* and to Legh-Lene, ' Take the 
place of Marge,^ on account of thy sanctity and thy 
labors, God would at once do it for thee."* Aidan, 
like another Elias, sent his disciple with his staff, and 
the dead arose. A man came to ask his intercession 
for his sick mother ; but as the saint was going, the 
mother died. The man came back, thanking the saint 
for his charity : but that it was now too late, his mother 
was dead. " Go," said Aidan, " and tell thy mother to 
come and meet me." The man returned, and told his 
lifeless mother, " Arise ; Aidan calls thee ! " and his 
mother arose.f 

In the presence of such a faith, we can scarcely doubt 
Ireland's vocation. Erin, for her own part, never doubted 
herself, — simple trust, in which we find, perhaps, at once 
the pride and simplicity of a half-civilized race, unsuited 
to refined or doubtful virtues, and whose mind could not 
yet separate the dignity of man from the dignity of the 
Christian. The saints of Ireland believed, without diffi- 
culty, in the sanctity of others ; they also believed in their 
own ; and not to speak falsely, it would seem, voluntarily 
avowed it. We have met more than one example ; we 
shall, doubtless, meet more. Sometimes, even, they seemed 
to acknowledge that they were not indifferent to the 
honors which sanctity confers.^ Speaking of Dage, 



* Vita Munnu, (Usher.) f Vita Aidan, (Capgrave.) 

I Vita Dage, (Colgan.) 



Op Ireland. 103 

whose future and labors he foretold, St. Moctheus said, 
■' He will do wonderful works ; and among other things, 
will make the chase in which my relics shall be pre- 
served." St. Senanus, a week after his death, at the 
moment when the monks were chanting the last psalms, 
and were about to close his week's mind, arose to mark 
the day on which he wished his memory to be honored.* 

If perfect sanctity be that which is self-ignorant, we 
must avow that the venerable personages of the Irish 
calendar do not all attain perfection. But in default 
of this difficult ignorance, this perfect virtue or supreme 
grace of humanity, we must ascribe to them an inferior, 
but still rare and often difficult merit — sincerity. 

They had, then, not merely the faith, but faith in their 
faith. This self-reliance was, perhaps, useful, and 
doubled their strength. They followed with more 
energy the spirit whose presence in them they felt so 
clearly, and they followed where it led, with the un- 
shaken assurance which power and success give. 

* Vita Senani, (Id.) 



104 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE miSH CHURCH AFTER ST. PATRICK. 

" What wilt thou give me in exchange for what thou 
askest ? " said an Irish chieftain to Bridget. " I will 
give thee, if thou wilt," she answered, " everlasting life, 
and the sceptre shall ever abide in thy race." " I seek 
not," replied the chief, " a life that I know not ; and for 
those who come after me I care but little. Grant me 
rather two other things ; that I may remain many a 
long year in this present life, in which I delight, and 
that I may be victorious in all my wars." * 

Such was not, happily, the general feeling of the Irish 
people, and Patrick's word had sounded to the depths of 
tlieir souls. " Ireland," says Evinus, " that was seated 
in the shadow of death, at that voice which called it to 
life, arose and saw a great light." There was a quick, 
wondrous touching bound of these delivered souls to- 
wards life, light, and liberty. 

This bound must necessarily stop or relax ; condenmed 
never to reach perfection, human works and humanity 
itself approach it only to diverge from it, and like the 
asymptote and the curve, recede farther in proportion 
as they have been nearer. The apostle knew this well. 
In a prophetic vision, Ireland had appeared before hini ; 
it was bathed in liquid light ; its plains, its mountains, 

Ultan., Vita Brigidae. 



Of Ireland. 105 

its valleys seemed illumined with an environing and all- 
penetrating flame ; then its dazzling brightness paled, 
and only the headlands, with their summits, seemed 
sparkling still ; then the mountains grew dark, and 
scattered gleams shone feebly in the depths of the 
valleys.* 

This is the image of Irish sanctity ; these are the 
three epochs of her history, the three orders of her para- 
dise. The third is holy, the second more holy, the first 
had been most holy.f The first had the glory of the 
noontide sun ; the second shone with the sweet pale 
light of the moon ; the third shone like the stars. 

This poetic and figurative expression does not reveal 
all the secrets of the Irish church ; and in the thousand 
narratives of the legend we find only rare and confused 
indications. Patrick left disciples after him ; he left 
numerous schools and learned masters ; and yet it 
seems that grave things took place in that church, that 
it experienced shocks violent enough to shake its very 
structure. 

" There were, at that time," says the Abbess Hilde- 
garde, in her history of Disibod, "there were great 
troubles in Ireland, a great schism and great scandals. 
Some attacked the Old and New Testaments, and de- 
nied Christ ; others embraced heresy, many fell into Ju- 
daism, and some relapsed into idolatry ; there were even 
some who ceased to live as men, to lead the shameful 
existence of brutes. "t 

To this testimony we must add that of Animosus. 
Bridget was one day transported in spirit to Rome. " I 



* Catalogus SS. Hibemiee. f Id. 

X Vita Disibod, (Surius ; ) but this foreign authority is of little value. 



106 Legendary History 

call God to witness," she said afterwards, " that I was 
in Rome in the basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul ; there 
I heard mass, and I ardently desired to see the order 
and rule there observed, introduced into this coun- 
try." And she sent wise men to Rome, who brought 
back the ritual of the mass, and various ecclesiastical 
rules.* 

On its side, the Catalogue of the Irish saints ac- 
knowledges that the saints of the second order received 
the mass from the Breton saints, David, Gildas, and 
Doccus.t 

Finally, according to the history of St. Gildas, when 
he came to Ireland at the prayer of King Ammeric, 
almost all the inhabitants of that island had lost the 
Catholic faith. "All," says the author, resuming, " all had 
lost it, from the least to the greatest." | The monk of 
Rhuys, however, evidently exaggerates. According to 
Usher, § it was Bridget who called Gildas to the aid of 
Irish Catholicity and Christianity. She who reformed 
the worsliip, || and who chose bishops, the daughter and 
heiress of Patrick, held a place exalted enough, had 
authority enough, for saints and doctors to respond to 
her call. 

Nor were Columban's words more true when he wrote 
to Pope Boniface, " We, Heberians, are all disciples of 
Peter, Paul, and all the disciples, receiving nothing be- 
yond the evangelical and apostolic doctrine. Not a 
single Jew, a single heretic, a single schismatic has been 
seen among us. And the faith of the apostles, such as 



* Animous, Vita Brigidae. + Catalogus SS. Hiberniee, (Usher.) 

t Vita Gildae Sap. (Mabillon.) § Usher, Antiquit. Eccles. Britann. 905. 
II Animosus, Vita Brigidae. 



Op Ireland. 107 

we have received it from you at first, we hold it ever 
by tradition, and nothing has shaken it."* 

Does not the very letter in which he speaks thus, be- 
long to the history of that great quarrel which so long 
and deeply troubled the insular churches, proving the 
source of so many spiritual and temporal evils to the 
Irish and British churches, and was not Columban the 
boldest, warmest, most indomitable champion of the 
Irish cause? The separation and struggle had been 
declared in Bridget's time, and Gildas could not check 
it. Columban revives them ; the assembly of Legh- 
Lene resulted only in dividing Ireland more completely ; 
and Rome required ages for her calendar and tonsure 
to triumph perfectly. 

After Columban, the troubles seem to have aggra- 
vated. Fursey addresses to the Irish church severe re- 
bukes. " The wrath of God overhangs all who despise 
his warnings ; but he is especially angered against the 
princes and doctors of the church. They prefer the 
world to God, and temporal interest makes them neg- 
lect the salvation of souls." t 

St. Kilian, according to the author of his Life, went to 
Italy to imbibe near the Holy See the pure doctrine of 
the Christian religion, and obtain permission to preach, 
for Ireland had been infected with the Pelagian heresy, 
and condemned by an apostolic censure, that could be 
absolved from but at Rome, i 

Without pursuing this inquiry further, without calling 
the Irish church to account for the obscure heresies of 
Sampson in the eighth century, for the opinions of John 

* Columban, Epist. ad Bonifacium P. P. ' 

t Vita Fursei, (Mabillon.) 

X VitaKiliani, (Surius;) of questionable authority. 



108 Legendary History 

Scotus in the ninth, for certain individual errors p^-o-' 
mulgated often far from Ireland, and never disseminated 
there, we see that the life of that church has had its 
alternations, its trials, its day of weakness. 

The three orders doubtless represent well the church 
of Erin ; but it is the church triumphant and crowned ; 
beneath it ever in struggle, and sometimes in distress, 
in a tumultuous arena, full of enemies and dangers, bat- 
tled the church militant ; and if many after the victory 
went to assume their places in the glorious hierarchy, 
many, too, were lost and succumbed. 

These calamities, these errors, these deceived or de- 
ceiving doctors, these incompetent or faithless pastors, 
Patrick and Bridget had foreseen and announced. 
" Most holy virgin," said Patrick, one day, to Bridget, 
" why hast thou slept at the word of God ? "* Bridget 
humbly knelt. " My father, and most holy lord, pardon 
me ; while I slept I dreamed. I, thy handmaid, saw 
four ploughs furrowing the whole surface of Ireland ; 
then sowers sowed the seed ; the harvest grew up and 
ripened ; streams of new milk filled the furrows. Then 
I beheld other ploughs, and husbandmen that were 
black ; they cast down the good harvest, and swept 
the keen ploughshare over it ; they sowed tares, and 
the furrows filled with muddy water." " Holy virgin," 
then said Patrick, "the vision that thou hast seen is 
wonderful and true, and this is the explanation. We 
are the good husbandmen ; with the four Gospels we 
open and fructify the hearts of men, and make the milk 
of Christian doctrine flow in streams. But towards the 
end of the world, evil doctors, in combination with all 

* Animosus, Vita Brigidee. 



Of Ireland. 109 

the wicked, shall come and destroy our doctrine, sedu- 
cing almost all souls." 

At the end of the century, and not as the holy apos- 
tle understood it, at the end of the world, but at the 
close of the very century in which he brought the gos- 
pel to Ireland, at the moment when Patrick was taken 
from his church, trials began. When the arm that had 
raised up Ireland and had upborne it for sixty years 
with such wonderful power, was withdrawn, Ireland 
reeled; but it did not fall; Gildas and Bridget sus- 
tained it ; then Patrick's disciples gathered close around 
them, and made an energetic effort. The British aided 
the Irish schools ; Nennius at Lancarvan, David at 
Menevia, Doccus at Nancarban, seconded the efforts of 
Olcan at Clunderclain, Mochteus at Lugdmagh, Gildas 
at Armagh, and Finnian at Cluain-Eraird. Formed by 
them, a new generation took the place of the former, 
whose work and traditions it, at the same time, re- 
sumed ; the epoch of the second order of Irish saints 
began. . 

In the time of St. Patrick, a twofold movement be- 
gan in the Irish church, within and without. Within 
it constituted itself, elevg^ting and regulating its monas- 
teries, opening and organizing its schools, founding and 
governing its abbeys and bishoprics. It acted already 
without, and began to send to foreign lands its pious and 
tireless travellers ; its anchorets, who sought solitudes ; 
its pilgrims, whose curious faith loved to visit the spots 
consecrated by holy recollections ; its learned scholars or 
masters, who wished to diffuse science, or imbibe it at the 
most plenteous or renowned fountains ; its missionaries, 
in fine, whom an apostolic instinct impelled to nations 
still idolatrous or but half converted. 
10 



110 Legendary History 

This twofold movement, prolonged during the first 
centuries of the Irish church, concentrating, so to say, 
its life and history, is represented by three great 
names — St. Columban, of Hy, or Columbkill, St. Colunt 
ban, of Luxeuil, and St. Brendan. 



' Op Ireland. Ill 



CHAPTER XIII. 

' GENERAL VIEW OF THE MONASTIC MOVEMENT IN 
IRELAND. 

" Behold the day of gladness ; the clerks applaud and 
are in joy, the sun of justice, which had been hidden in 
the clouds, shines forth again."* 

Thus does the encouraged church chant the return of 
light. There had been, as it were, an eclipse ; during 
these passing shades, confusion and trouble had entered 
men's souls, and the church doubtless experienced a 
moment of uncertainty and anguish. But at the first 
ray, Ireland woke to a new life, and her labor, suspended 
for a moment, was resumed with more ardent activity. 
When the new masters arrived on the barks that bore 
them from the Cambrian schools, Erin stood on the 
shore, impatient and restless ; when they entered the 
country, they were followed, not by troops, but by 
armies of disciples ; when they stopped, it was to found, 
not a monastery, but a city. One would have said that 
now the Irish people were ceasing to be a nation, to 
become only a church ; that the clans and the five king- 
doms were going to unite in a vast abbey, with Finnian 
and Columbkill for successive abbots. 

The names of those who gave rise to this great move- 
ment and guided it, have remained glorious, and their 
memory has been celebrated in chants which display, 
amid the gratitude and admiration of the church, that 

* Hymn in the Office of St. Finnian. 



112 Legendary History 

kind of maternal and poetic love, the sweetest homage 
it can offer to saints on the day of their triumph. " On 
the lily has bloomed the rose, whose leaves the spring 
has reddened ; Erin is embalmed with it ; men come 
from afar to breathe its perfume. There the mystic 
bees suck in honey and bear it to their homes. Fali- 
cia, thou hast borne a wondrous flower ; whoever presses 
his lips to it, heals both soul and body." * 

What names in the legend are Comgall, Fintan, the 
two Brendans, Munnu, Moctheus, Lasrean ! What 
power during life, what glory after death ! And yet 
we have met, and yet we shall find still greater ! How 
many more have been illustrious in the church ! doctors 
speaking to thousands of hearers, abbots governing na- 
tions of monks, solitaries astonishing the world by their 
virtues and their miracles ! We know them not in our 
day. Yet they were radiant in their own, and will 
ever shine forth in the lost space of the Irish legend, as 
shine the stars whom the motion of time and the heavens 
has borne far from us and hidden from our eyes. 

If the legend counts by thousands the disciples of 
these great masters, it is by hundreds, too, that it counts 
the monasteries erected by each. Why enumerate them 
here ? Learned men have drawn up the sacred geogra- 
phy of Ireland ; they have collected every name, marked 
every vestige : could they have restored all the ruins, 
assembled all the relics, and reanimated all the dead, 
Ireland would appear to them as she does in the legend, 
bristling with churches, covered with cells, peopled with 
saints, resounding with bells and symbols, echoing amid 
the chant of psalmody. What more do we see in the 
legend ? The heavens opening above the Irish soil ; be- 

* Colgan, Hymn in the Office of St. Finnian. 



Op Ireland. IIB 

tween heaven and earth souls taking their flight, angels 
ascending or descending, luminous columns marking the 
most glorious abodes, and golden ladders resting on 
clouds to reach paradise. "If history does not relate all 
these wonders, it declares, at least, how monastic Ire- 
land was, and we must ask no further testimony. 

Five masters taught spiritual life and founded rules : 
Patrick, Kieran, Columbkill, Comgall, and Adamnan. 
" These," says Alcuin, " are the illustrious fathers of the 
Irish church, the masters of life and manners." The au- 
thor of St. Kieran's Life names eight, as founders of 
orders : Patrick, Bridget, Brendan, Kieran, Columbkill, 
Comgall, Molass, Adamnan. These were the highest, 
for nothing was more varied, more free or more mobile, 
than this religious society. Every hive formed its 
swarms, which soon multiplied and colonized in turn ; 
and each of these republics could change its constitution 
and laws. Each solitary made his own rule ; if disci- 
ples came, the cell became a monastery, the founder a 
legislator. 

All these institutions resembled each other, doubtless ; 
they had the same starting point, the same goal, and the 
same means of attaining it. They gave a shorter or 
longer time to contemplation, prayer, mortification, man- 
ual labor, study. They were more or less severe. When 
the limit seemed passed, the wiser protested ; Fintan's 
rule was too hard, so was that of Moctheus ; but charity 
stepped in, and the master lightened, in favor of the 
weaker disciples, a burden that they could not bear. 
Moctheus alone practised his rule exactly ; * and Fintan 
received this admonition from heaven : " Sustain thy 

* Colgan, Vita Fintani. 



114 Legendaey History 

combat to the end ; but beware of leading others into 
error or scandal, for one clay is weaker than another." 
The spirit of these rules is found in the monasteries 
founded out of Ireland ; and on seeing that drawn up by 
St. Columban, we may infer that they were in general 
very severe. Yet they remained unchanged ; five cen- 
turies after, the masters had relaxed nought of their 
rigor, the disciples nought in their obedience. Let us 
hear Marianus relate the fault and the penance of Amne- 
chad. While he was in Ireland, at Iniskeltre, some 
fathers came one day, whom, by permission of his mas- 
ter, Cortram, he entertained. After the meal, as they 
sat by the fire, they asked him for a drink. He refused, 
unwilling to do so without permission ; but finally 
allowed himself to be overcome, taking care first merely 
to send his master the first fruits of what he offered his 
guests. The next day, Cortram having asked him what 
had happened, Amnichad told him all, and was at once 
ordered to leave Ireland. He went to Fulda, immured 
himself in a strait stone cell, and after spending long 
years there, died.* In punishing thus, Cortram doubt- 
less had in his mind, perhaps, Colman, that martyr of 
monastic obedience in St. Patrick's time, who died rather 
than quench his thirst before the time appointed by his 
master. Tigernach, in his turn, related the story of 
Amnichad to Marianus, when reproving him for a slight 
fault, and it was on the very tomb of the holy penitent 
that Marianus spent ten years as a recluse. Thus were 
traditions, rules, and examples transmitted ; thus was 
sanctity perpetuated. 

Rules and monasteries might extend and multiply at 

* Marianus Scotus, Chron. an. 1043. 



Of Ireland. 115 

ease, Ireland belonged to them ; it seemed, at least, that 
•that great country, with its deep forests, its swarming 
rivers, its isles and loughs, was a new, free world, open 
to the nomad life of errant saints, and to the stable 
foundations of those who fixed themselves on the soil and 
established colonies. Land surely was not wanting in 
Ireland ; and the monasteries often seem to have the 
right of first occupant to the ground where they were 
founded. Often, too, in Ireland, as elsewhere, they 
were endowed by the generosity of the owner, too happy 
to see rising on his hereditary domain a holy house, 
from which would gush, in other days, an endless foun- 
tain of spiritual and temporal blessings. 

These pious travellers were to be seen traversing 
Ireland, seeking the spot marked out by God for tlieir 
rest and their resurrection. Sometimes, where they 
stopped, the crowd would assemble in too great num- 
bers ; they set out for calmer retreats. At other times, 
it would happen that the monastery only changed in- 
mates. Munnu had been five years living at Heli when 
Kiera came with her virgins. The monk who was guest 
master welcomed them ; but Kiera sent him to Mun- 
nu. *' Go, tell the servant of God," said she, " to give 
me a place where I may serve God with my daughters." 
Then Munnu said to his disciples, " Brethren, this is not 
the place of our resurrection ; let us leave it to the 
virgins of the Lord ; we will leave them, too, the fruit 
of our toil, taking only what we need on the way, our 
office books, the chapel service, our daily vestments, and 
two oxen to draw our chariot." At a subsequent day, 
Tell, the son of Segen, came in his turn, and succeeded 
Kiera.* 

* Yita Munnu, (Colgan.) 



116 Xegendary History 

Sometimes, too, the people were wicked, and drove 
out the man of God. Thus Moctheus had to leave his 
monastery of Lismhor, and bent his way to Lughmadh.* 
But by Lismhor meandered a stream that Moctheus 
loved, and, like Moctheus, it could find its way ; beneath 
the surface, by secret turns, it followed the saint's steps, 
and when Moctheus stopped at Lughmadh, he beheld his 
cool stream of Lismhor gushing forth at his feet ; on 
its banks arose that famous school that sent out three 
hundred priests and a hundred bishops. 

A powerful and unseen magnet seemed from the depth 
of these holy abodes to be attracting souls, so quickly 
did they fill up. Many came from afar, to seek rest for 
a weary heart, or lore for the thirsting mind. Many, 
too, would be passing the gate, reckless of retirement 
and salvation, when grace would take them on the way. 
One day, Fergna traversed the plain of Lifi'ey. Fintan 
went towards him, and, kneeling down, implored him to 
leave the world, and assume the monastic habit. " I 
have," said Fergna, unaffectedly, " twelve sons and seven 
daughters, a beautiful and beloved wife, a people living 
under my rule in peace and plenty. I cannot part with 
them, and I love them." " Return to thy home," said 
Fintan, " and I will pursue my path." Fergna went his 
way ; but the words of the saint had sunk deep in the 
princely heart ; and, a few days after, he abandoned all 
that he loved, to live with him in Christ.t 

At another time, men passed by, chanting their war 
songs, and bearing aloft the grisly heads of their foes.:]: 
" Amid these shouts," said Fintan, " I mark the voice 
of an innocent lamb ; it is Kieran, son of Tulchan." 

* Vita Mochtei, (Colgan.) f Vita Fintatii, (Colgan.) J Id. 



Op Ireland. 117 

And Kieran went no farther ; he entered the monastery, 
where he was to live and die.* 

When, in the depths of a solitude, Aldus found two 
holy men, two elders, seated under the hoary trees of 
the forest, reading and expounding the gospel, ex- 
changing, in the sweet and religious silence of the wild- 
wood, the grave words, the profound thoughts of wisdom, 
is it wonderful that his heart was touched ? And when, 
those old men rose before him, and announced to him in 
the language of the saints and prophets, that God had 
set his seal upon him, and that angels already walked 
beside him, is it surprising that his soul was thencefor- 
ward seized by the mysterious spirit of contemplation 
and asceticism ? f 

Then those ecclesiastical festivals, whose pomp and 
whose simplicity even can have so strange an effect, — 
those processions, that traversed Ireland, chanting the 
Psalter, — acted on naturally religious souls, and drew 
with them those whom grace had already prepared. 
One day, says the Life of Mochudda,t the holy bishop 
Carthag came to the valleys of Mainne. There Moc- 
hudda kept his flocks. The bishop, on his way, was 
chanting versicles of the Psalms, alternating with his 
companions, and Mochudda, hearing their psalmody, 
was seized with the Holy Ghost, left his flock, and fol- 
lowed the bishop to the monastery of Thuaim. There, 
while the bishop was received into the guest chamber, 
Mochudda remained without, unknown to any one, either 
Caffthag or the rest. Meanwhile, Moel Tuili, Mochud- 
da's master, seeing that he did not return, sent out after 
him ; and when they found him, and brought him before 

* Vita Fintani, (Colgan.) f Vita Aidi, (Colgan>) + Vita Cartiiag. (Id.) 



118 Legendary History 

his master, Moel Tuili asked, " Why didst thou not come 
back last night, my son ? " " Because, my lord," he 
replied, " the divine chant that I heard those holy clerks 
chanting ravished me ; I never heard men chant so ; 
and they chanted all along the way, and in the house, 
too, till it was time for sleep ; even the holy bishop, 
after all the rest, far into the night, was chanting still. 
My lord, I would fain go with them, to learn that 
beautiful chant." Moel Tuili was touched at this simple 
vocation, and the boy was offered to St. Cartkag. 

But these naive vocations were none the less irresisti- 
ble ; the young souls, whom Christian music and poetry 
had gained, were sometimes chosen souls, sublimely 
heroic. Mochudda was Carthag's beloved disciple ; and 
the day when the holy bishop, after having instructed 
him, brought him back to the hearth of Moel Tuili, a 
scene occurred, often met indeed in the history*of the 
church, but singularly expressive in its Irish simplicity. 
Mochudda had become the most worthy disciple of the 
master whose name and virtues he was to copy. He 
was a priest. Carthag, with him, bent his way to. 
Leamhna, and when they reached Forann, where Moel 
Tuili was, he presented Mochudda to him. " Here is," 
said he, "the son that I received from thy hands. He 
has studied, he has learned the divine books of the Scrip- 
tures ; I have conferred on him the dignity of the priest- 
hood, and the grace of God already appears in him 
by many miracles." "What shall I give thee for thy 
reward?" asked Moel. "I ask," replied the old inan, 
" that thou offer to this young servant of Christ thyself 
and thy race after thee, forever." But Moel would not, 
on account of Mochudda's youth. Then the venerable 
bishop, bending down, bent his knee before his disciple, 



Op Ireland. 119 

saying, " Behold, I offer myself to thee, and to the Lord, 
myself and all my church, forever." Seeing this, Moel 
prostrated himself, humbly vowing himself and all his 
race to St. Mochudda. 

Such was, then, in Ireland, the prestige of science 
and sanctity ; such could be the power of those who, in 
the sixteenth century, were still always styled, with 
respect, " the sons of good doctrine."* Such were the 
privileges of the church. 

That church, moreover, that great monastic society, 
must have been intensely popular and sympathetic to 
Ireland. Theirs was not a confined church, excluding 
the sun and the air ; it was wide and open. It was not 
an exclusive caste, an arrogant or ambitious corpora- 
tion, but an immense confraternity, admitting all indi- 
vidualities, all associations, provided they were truly 
Christian ; and these individualities, these associations, 
were not perpetually in suspicion, or at war with each 
other. They lived openly ; they moved freely ; and in 
this life of motion, this almost nomadic life, liberty 
could scarcely be stifled — that evangelical and truly 
moral liberty which respects while it directs man's 
will. In fine, ever flying men, and ever seeking them ; 
seeking, in cloister and desert, prayer, study, ascetic 
thoughts ; returning, amid their own, to share in the suf- 
ferings, the interests, the sentiments of one and all, of 
the family, the tribe, the Irish nation, — the monks re- 
mained men ; they were more Christians than monks, 
uftiting to the personal and abstract merits of ascetic 
sanctity the substantial virtues and social qualities 
wMch are, too, a sanctity, less purified and less fruitful, 

* Stanihurst, De Rebus in Hibemia gestis. 



120 Legendary History 

less angelic and more human, less near to heaven, but 
more useful and sweeter to earth. 

This picture is, perhaps, an ideal ; this perfection is, 
perhaps, a miracle, to be added to all the rest. The 
monks of whom we speak are the monks of the legend ; 
and we find, at least, in the legend all the features and 
colors which form the painting. 

The monks then loved their rule and their cloister ; 
they had tender friendships ; tliey loved their kindred 
according to the flesh ; they loved their native land. 

"I confess to thee, father," said a monk to St. Fintan, 
who had questioned as to the cause of his melancholy, 
" I confess that I grieve at the absence of my brother 
according to the flesh ; and I beg thee, in the name of 
God, to let me go and see him again, and not die of* sad- 
ness." " Be of good heart, my son," said the holy abbot, 
gently ; '' thy brother will come back, and this very day 
thou shalt wash his feet, for his heart could find no 
repose away from us." 

In the same monastery two other brothers had lived 
from childhood. The elder died, and while he was 
dying the other was laboring in the forest ; when he 
came back, he saw them opening a grave in the ceme- 
tery, and thus he learned that his brother was dead. 
He hastened to the spot where Fintan, with some of his 
monks, was chanting psalms around the corpse, and 
asked him the favor of dying with his brother, and enter- 
ing with him into the heavenly kingdom. " Thy brother 
is already in heaven," replied Fintan, " and you cannot 
enter together, unless he rise again." Then he knelt in 
prayer ; the angels who had received the holy soul 
restored it, and the dead man, rising in his bier, called 
his brother. " Come," said he, " but come quickly ; the 



Of Ireland, 121 

angels await us.*' At the same time, he made room be- 
side him, and both, lying down, slept together in death, 
and ascended together to the kingdom of God.* 

In these marvellous and mystic stories, all the ideas, 
all the sentiments, take the allegorical and brilliant form 
of the miracle. But under these graceful or quaint 
forms of monastic imagination we behold humanity ; 
and we love to see the genius of the cloister idealize 
and sanctify the sweet affections in man's heart, instead 
of uprooting or blasting them. 

Thus, too, is expressed, at every hour of their lives, 
in every page of their history, the love which the Irish 
saints bore the men of their race and their native land. 
This ever-ready beneficence, this ever-active protection, 
their power lavishing miracles and multiplying relief as 
quickly as need multiplied, whence came they? From 
charity, doubtless ; but at the bottom of this evangelical 
and universal charity there is a patriotic and national 
sentiment. When we see how in Britain, and in the 
depths of Cambria, they protected, defended a menaced 
independence, a conquered nationality, we see the energy 
they will display to save the liberty of Ireland. Patrick 
had obtained of God that his country should not be con- 
demned to bear the law of a stranger. Kieran offered 
up the same prayer.t Others, after them, asked the 
same ; X yet no one then menaced the Irish soil ; but it 
seemed as if these patrons of Erin had secret fears 
and sad forebodings, and that the spirit of prophecy, 
rendered more lucid still by love of country made them 



* Vita Fintani, (Colgan.) f Vita Kieran, (Colgan.} 

X Vita End£e, (Colgan.) 

11 



122 Legendary History 

faresee, in tlie distant future, invasion, conquest, and 
foreign oppression. 

Such were, in the second epoch, the saints of Ire- 
land ; such are the traits which, incessantly recurring in 
the legend, compose their physiognomy and character. 
They will be found in him who rules this whole epoch, 
and seems to be its most complete and most brilliant 
personification, the ideal expression of monastic per- 
fection and contemplative serenity. 

Before speaking of Columbkill, and relating his le- 
gend, there are some traits to be pointed out ; one scene 
to be detached from the general history of monastic life 
in the sixth century. 



Of Ireland. 123 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ENDA AND FANCHEA. 

It would have been doubtless surprising, — it was per- 
haps impossible, — amid this generous independence, this 
liberty of mind and heart, for women not to be raised 
from that kind of excommunication which St. Patrick 
had reluctantly pronounced. In the vast religious and 
monastic movement that made Ireland a blooming The- 
bais, where, in every forest, and on every road, errant 
doctors, nomadic monasteries, travelling anchorets, and 
pilgrims in search of pious adventures, constantly crossed 
each other's path, how could they always avoid the sight 
of women, avoid meeting and conversing with them ? 
for they, too, had their abbeys, their schools, and their 
cells ; by separating them from the holy men, they had 
not cut them off from holiness. They formed a church, 
and that church was like the other — numerous, active, 
agitated, moving. In the neighborhood of the holy 
anchorets lived anchoretesses no less holy ; the com- 
panies of virgins following their spiritual mother, and 
seeking the place of their repose, passed beside troops of 
disciples, journeying with their masters ; the convents 
opened indifferently to the brethren and the sisters that 
sought hospitality ; and sometimes, as we have seen, the 
saints who, on the eve, had offered this hospitality, took 
up, in the morning, their staff for a journey, leaving 
their weaker sisters the house which they had built, 



124 Legendary History 

the implements they had fashioned, the fields they had 
cleared. 

We accordingly find, here and there, traces of the 
Christian relations, the happy associations or influences, 
from which the holiest and firmest men, the greatest and 
most respected women in the church, might gather, with- 
out danger and without scandal, sweet and useful fruit. 
It was a pious hermitess who counselled Columban to 
leave Ireland,* thus sending to Gaul and Italy that 
great master of religious science and the monastic life. 
More than one saint, like Colman,t formed his youth 
under a woman's discipline ; and when we come to speak 
of the schools of the Irish church, we shall have to 
remember these skilful mistresses. Their pupils, become 
abbots or bishops, preserved a holy and tender affection 
for those whom they called their nurses ; Colman left 
the Island of Hy and Columbkill to visit Rethna. 

Brendan had been brought up by Ita ; and when he 
returned from his voyages, X he went to recount them to 
the holy woman, who received him in her arms and ten- 
derly clasped him to her heart. He consulted her ; if 
she called him, he responded to her summons and ful- 
filled her orders. Nor did Lughtigern and Lasrean pay 
her less striking homage. 

The life of Enda § and Fanchea gives us the entire his- 
tory of one of these austere and mystic alliances. When 
Fanchea, at the threshold of her monastery, arrested the 
headlong course of Enda, he had just shed the blood of 
a man. "I hold the heritage of my father," said he to 
the holy woman ; " I must meet my enemies in battle." 



* Jonas, Yita Columbani. f "Vita St. Itae, (Colgan.) J Id. 

§ Vita Endae, (Colgan.) 



Op Ireland. 125 

" Thy father is in hell," replied Fanchea, " but his sins 
and his crimes are his own." Then Enda, dissembling 
his thought, replied, " If thou wilt give me, as my spouse, 
that maiden of royal blood whom thou art bringing up, 
I will do thy will." " Thou shalt ere long have my an- 
swer," said she. Then entering the chamber where the 
young maiden was, she asked her whether she wished to 
love Him whom she loved, or whether she preferred a 
spouse according to the flesh. The young maiden, hav- 
ing answered that she would love him whom Fanchea 
loved, " Come, then," said the saint, " and rest a moment 
on this couch." But when the maiden had stretched 
herself upon it, she expired. Meanwhile, Fanchea cov- 
ered the face of the departed, and called Enda. " Come, 
young man, and see the woman whom thou hast desired ; " 
and, entering with him, she uncovered the face of the 
maiden. " Behold her whom thou hast desired." " She 
is no longer beautiful ; " he replied ; " she is too pale." 
"And such wilt thou thyself be," rejoined the saint. 
Then she spoke sternly to him of the pains of hell, the 
joys of heaven, and converted him. 

Enda became Fanchea's" disciple, and assumed the 
habit. He toiled, he labored, he directed the workmen 
in the erection of the monastery. His old comrades 
came to seek him. Fanchea had made the sign of the 
cross against thera, and they remained motionless, riv- 
eted to the earth. But one day, the men of Enda's race 
came, in pursuit of robbers, to the gates of the monas- 
tery ; a battle ensued, and the instinct of family and of 
war revived in the heart of the monk. Already was he 
arming and hastening to the relief of his kindred. 
'' Enda," cried Fanchea, " lift thy hand to thy head, and 
forget not that thou hast assumed the crown of Christ." 
11* 



126 Legendaey History 

Enda, touching his shaven head, remembered that he 
was a monk ; his hand dropped the weapon, and he sat 
down in his cell in peace. 

Then it was that his spiritual sister advised him to 
shun these temptations, and leave Ireland. " Go to . 
Britain, study humbly at the feet of Manchen, in the 
great monastery ; when the renown of thy virtues reaches 
here, it will be time to return." 

One day some pilgrims from Rome passed by Fan- 
chea's monastery ; they were asked of the famous saints 
in different countries. Then they spoke of a saint of 
Irish birth, called Enda, who directed a monastery, and 
whose virtues were precious before God. Fanchea, with 
her heart full of joy, resolved to go and see her brother ;• 
she took with her three of her companions, cast her 
cloak on the sea, and the fragile raft, borne by the winds 
and waves, steered to the British coast. For a moment, 
however, the hem of the cloak seemed to sink in the 
sea. A slight infraction on Fanchea's directions had 
been committed by one of the virgins, and this unseen 
weight bore down the wondrous craft. 

But Enda, now become an abbot, now great in the 
church, far from the sweet traditions of Irish fraternity, 
had also become sterner. When the four travellers 
reached his convent door, Enda informed his sister that 
she could see his face without hearing his voice, or hear 
his words without beholding his countenance. Fanchea 
preferred to hear him. A tent was pitched, and Enda, 
veiled, conversed with her. He promised to revisit Ire- 
land. He did, indeed, return ; and he it was who founded 
the eight monasteries which divide the Island of Arran. 
But we are not told that he ever saw Fanchea more. 
Had he banished her from his mind, or has the legend 



Of Ireland. 127 

forgotten the end of this long friendship, at once so 
tender and so austere ? Could it be that, at the hour 
of death, at that hour at least, Fanchea would not de- 
serve to have her body blessed and buried by him whom 
she had served and loved in the Lord, and that Enda 
did not grant her what other saints did not refuse wo- 
men who had withal served and loved them less ? 

Sometimes, too, the idea of St. Patrick was realized 
in the bosom of the church. The law of divorce, which 
he had pronounced, had then ite happy exceptions.. 
Sentences pronounced against women could scarcely be 
absolute ; they are never without appeal ; and in the land 
whose history we are writing,, amid the circumstances 
that we have described, the instincts of union, confi- 
dence, and love, more than elsewhere, prevailed over 
rules of distrust and separation. 



128 Legendary History 



•CHAPTER XT. 

COLUMBKILL. 

If the church pays homage to all the merit that honors 
her, if she has chants and prayers for all saints, there 
are some, nevertheless, of whom she seems to keep a 
livelier remembrance, of whom she ever speaks in chosen 
words. There are virtues that come home to the heart ; 
the serenity, meekness, tenderness of contemplative souls, 
the mystic perfections of the cloister and solitude awake 
in her a more profound sympathy, a secret predilection ; 
and tins sentiment is disclosed anon in the animated or 
excited langunge of her hymns, or in the expressive 
beauty of her style. "The snow-winged dove," says she, 
speaking of tlie Irisli saint,'- "the rosy-necked and bril- 
liant dove, has soiiiiht the tops nearest lieaven. f\r from 
earthly mire ; there has she builr, her nest, on tlie rock 
of penance ; and there, by the Word of grace, she°has 
begotten her little ones, beloved by Ch^i^t, and faiihful 
to him ; there she is unceasingly mingling her melodi- 
ous chant with plaintive moans." 

Criomthann, as he was styled at his birth, was indeed 
the dove of the cloisters, and the name of Columbkill was 
only the figured expression, the poetic image, of a sanc- 
tity, where the monastic order of Ireland soon became 
idealized with the characteristic traits of its sanctity 
and its legend. 

* Office of St. Columbkill, Abbot. 



Of Ireland. 129 

He had long been promised to Erin. " In* the last 
days of the century/' had Maveteus said, "a child shall 
be born, who will be called Columba, and whose name 
shall be famous in all the isles of the ocean ; the last 
years of the world shall all be enlightened with his 
glory, for he shall be dear to God, and of great merit 
before him."* Patrick, himself, beheld him in the fu- 
ture, and foretold him to his people. Conall had just 
received his blessing, when his younger brother, Fergus, 
came up in turn. The holy prelate first prayed, then 
blessed him, laying his hands on his head long and with 
great devotion. The elder brother, seeing this, was sur- 
prised and afflicted ; and Patrick, perceiving the cloud 
on his brow, consoled him. " I have blessed thy broth- 
er," said he, " on account of the blessed son who is to be 
born of his race ; for his son Fedhlemir will beget a 
son who shall be called Columba, because, from his 
mother's womb he will be filled with the spirit of God. 
He shall be rich in the treasures of science and wisdom ; 
he shall be a shining light in his generation, and will 
merit the title of prophet of the Most High."t A little 
later, too, he marked the spot where Columba should 
make his abode. " Arriving at the banks of the Boelle," 
says Jocelyn, "as the river was wide and deep, and there 
was no bark, he prayed, and the river opening, left him 
a passage. Under his blessing, the waters divided so 
that it became fordable, and at the same time the fish 
multiplied at that spot." When Patrick's disciples ex- 
pressed their astonishment, "In a great many years," 
said he, "a son of life shall be born, and be called Co- 
lumba ; he shall dwell here, and these prodigies are 
wrought in his favor." 

* St. Adamnan, Vita Columbse, (Migne's Patrol, vol. Ixxx.) 
t Jocelyn, Vita S. Patricii. 



130 Legendary History 

At the moment when Bridget was to be withdrawn 
from Ireland, which she consoled for Patrick, by reflect- 
ing, so to say, the light with which Patrick had enlight- 
ened her, Columbkill was born. 

A little before his birth,* an angel appeared to his 
mother, and placed in her hands a veil of wondrous 
beauty, radiant with the hues of every floweret. But ere 
long, escaping from Aethnea's hand, the mysterious veil 
unfolded, opened, and soaring heavenward, spread wider 
and wider, floating in gentle waves over mountain and 
valley, covering all in its wide folds ; and as Aethnea 
mourned that she had not kept it, the angel said, " Be 
consoled ; a son shall be born of thee ; all virtues shall 
shine in his soul, like the flowers in the web of this 
beauteous veil, and he is predestined by God for the 
salvation of many souls." 

The angel Axal was given as a guardian to the pre- 
destined child;! signs often revealed God's designs, 
and the presence of angels ; t flames hovered around his 
head as he slept, and lit up the house of Doire Ethne, 
where his first years were spent. 

Son of a prince, he was hurried to the field of com- 
bat ; but he was protected by Axal ; and even then God 
had sent to him three divine virgins, who appeared to 
him one day, to excite in his soul a pure and mystic 
love : Virginity, Wisdom, and Prophecy. When the 
appointed moment for his vocation arrived, he went 
about seeking the lessons of Ireland's holiest masters. 
Finnian of Maghbile, Gorman, Finnian of Cluain-Eraird, 
instructed him. Yet then it was that that sanctity, 



* Cumm., Vita Columbae. 

t Officium S. Columb., Abbatis. + Id. 



Op Ireland. 131 

already so advanced in perfection, was humbled ; a synod 
excommunicated him ; the fault with which he was re- 
proached was slight, and he was innocent of it.* When, 
then, he appeared before the severe judges who had 
condemned him, his innocence, in the eyes of the holiest, 
was mysteriously revealed. Brendan, the founder of 
Birr, arose, and fell on his knees. " You have despised 
the man of God," he cried ; '' I have seen a halo around 
him, and angels attending his path." 

At Dor he formed his first disciples ; but his fame and 
his zeal already radiated over all Ireland ; numerous 
miracles already revealed in him the rival of the great- 
est saints, and the heir of St. Patrick ; for to him was 
it given to find and bear, in his turn, the apostle's 
book and cymbal. Then came the battle of Cule- 
Dreibne. Columbkill set out for Great Britain, and 
landed on the Island of lona, where he was to abide 
and found his great monastery. There rose beneath his 
hands that monastic city which so promptly became the 
religious capital of the British isles, of Albanian and 
Pict, Anglo-Saxon and Irish. Thence soon he acted on 
all nations. Among the Albanians and Picts f he con- 
verted the pagans, confounded the magicians, and con- 
secrated kings. For the Anglo-Saxons he prepared 
bishops to announce the gospel to them, and found 
churches in their midst. In Ireland, recalled by princes 
and people, who sent him a deputation of their most 
illustrious saints, he created numerous monasteries, 
where, under his discipline, so many thousands came to 
learn the spiritual life. 

Thence he overlooked what passed in the four king- 

* Cumm., Vita Columbae. f St. Adamnan, Vita Colxunbae. 



132 Legendary History 

doms ; and from this interior view, this second sight, 
with which God had endowed him,'* he constantly, and 
without effort, was present at most distant events and 
accidents ; t his glance passed seas and traversed conti- 
nents, reaching to the very centre of Italy. His soul 
and his thought dilated, and the world, with its conti- 
nents and oceans, lay before him, clear and manifest ; 
he seized it at a glance, as it were in the rapid light of 
a sunbeam. Such was that second sight of the saints, 
already explained by St. Gregory,! and possessed by a 
small number of the elect preferred by God. 

Thus he assisted Aidan amid the shock of battje ; 
thus he followed, with watchful eye, with thought and 
prayer, the traveller on his way, the mariner in the 
wanderings and perils of the seas. He beheld the waves 
arise in the distant tempest, and sea monsters rise from 
the abyss, to menace the vessel. " Cormac," said he, 
" seeks a solitude, but he will not find it yet." " Prince," 
he said, on another occasion, to a British king, '* many 
of our brethren are about to land on the Orcades : com- 
mend them to the prince of those islands ; thou boldest 
his hostages." For if his eye was open and penetrating, 
like that of Providence, like it, too, Columbkill was be- 
neficent. His soul was moved at every danger and 
every woe ; when men beheld his countenance turn pale, 
or red, or veiled, it was because, then, in some lost spot 
of Erin, in the depths of some monastery, there was a 
pain to relieve, a man to save, a slight sorrow sometimes 
to alleviate. "What afflicts me, my son," said he to 
Diermid, "is, that I see Laifran making my monks work 



* Baithen, Vita Columbse. t St. Adamnan. 

X St. Gregory, Dialogues. § St. Adamnan. 



Of Ireland. 133 

hard, and yet they are very weary." But peace soon 
returned to his countenance ; for rapid as was the glance 
of the saint, or charitable as liis thought, had an angel 
flown and remedied the evil, the heart of Laifran haa 
been chanu-ed, and the brethren reposed beneath the 
shades of Dair-Maigh. Anotlier monk, far from there, 
was engaged in building a church ; he loses his balance 
and falls ; but from lona Columbkill had seen him, and 
the alarmed monk feels himself supported in an an- 
gel's arms. 

Columbkill was not, then, merely the father of monas- 
teries, that is to say, their creator ; he was, too, by his 
solicitude and his love, the father of his monks. Can 
we wonder if they responded to that paternal care, that 
tender watchfulness, by ardent homage, by truly filial 
piety, and that they made him the purest type of mo- 
nastic perfection and cloister rule? When he landed in 
Ireland, tribes were in commotion, monasteries a.iritated, 
anchorites left their cells, the church herself felt her 
heart bounding within her, and he had to traverse the 
great island borne on the shoulders of his monks, so 
serried was the multitude around him.'-^ 

Who, after that, could ask the detailed account of his 
virtues, his ascetic exercises, prayers, genuflections, fasts, 
mortifications of every kind? His whole life is the 
heavenly manifestation of his sanctity, the permanent 
glorification of his perfection. So with his legend ; hu- 
man virtues and sanctity, we may say, disappear ; pro- 
phetic revelations, miracles, heavenly apparitions, fill the 
three books of Adamnan, and the whole history of Col- 
umbkill. For him transfiguration took place this side 

» St. Adamnan. 

12 



134 Legendary History 

the tomb, and the vision of heaven was blended with 
that of earth. He did not ascend to heaven, but heaven 
descended to him.* Then followed ineffable colloquies, 
superhuman outpourings, revelations like -those of Pat- 
mos ; for three days and nights an uncreated light 
inundated the retreat in which he was enclosed ; chants 
were heard, chants unknown, ravishing, which the choirs 
alone of the new Jerusalem will one day repeat. Then 
were opened to him the secrets of the Scriptures, the 
abyss of creation, the mysteries of the divine work. 
Why, at these moments of grace and initiation, when 
the eternally closed book of sovereign science half 
opened its pages, when God, by the outpouring of his 
predilection, forgot that he condemned man to igno- 
rance, why was not Baithen, the faithful disciple, near his 
master ? Why did he then wander, tossed and retained 
by the winds on the waves of a distant sea ? What a 
sublime book he would have written at Columbkills dic- 
tation ! a new Apocalypse, as marvellous as that of the 
apostle St. John, clearer it might be. 

If Columbkill chanted with the angels the hymns of 
heaven, the angels, in their turn, kept silent, and they 
bent when the holy man uttered the hymns which the 
spirit had inspired him. When the envoys of Gregory 
came to Rome, bringing back the great hymn of Columb- 
kill, the holy pope wished to hear it ; and when the 
envoys began, he beheld angels ranged around, and bend- 
ing, eager to hear it. Gregory, troubled, rose also. It 
happened that the travellers changed some strophes, — 
the angels immediately disappeared ; f but when the 



* St. Adamnan. 

t Colgan, Appendix ad Vit. Columbae in Triade. 



Of Ireland. 135 

chanters recovered the sacred words of that grave and 
profound poesy, then the divine auditors reappeared, 
and Gregory rose again, seized with religious -awe. 

Yet this angelic life was but a mortal one, and the 
term of his pilgrimage approached ; already even he had 
once touched the limit at first set by the divine will ; 
already the angels descended to meet him. Columbkill 
beheld, the gates of his new and happy country open, and 
his visage was for an instant lit up by the first rays of 
true beatitude. Then the angels stopped, waited ; then 
they ascended to heaven ; the luminous doors closed. 
The afflicted churches had besought God to leave Columb- 
kill among them yet a while, and God had granted it. 
Columbkill sighed ; there was a delay of four years. 

This mystery was concealed from his disciples ; it was 
not revealed to them. Amid all these accounts, where 
transfigured humanity preludes the immaterial, pure, 
and splendid existence of immortality, a graceful and 
human scene took place. Columbkill, moreover, remained 
a man amid all the prestiges of his superhuman life ; 
and he at least preserved the heart's most delicate senti- 
ments and dearest afi'ections. Thus he loved his country. 
When he had to leave it, he left it not without a sad 
and heavy heart, and the remembrance which he cher- 
ished of that land which his eyes could half see, but 
which was long closed to him, was sometimes revealed 
by touching expressions. 

"Hear me," he said, one day, to one of his monks ; 
" at the third hour of the day, thou wilt go and sit at the 
western extremity of this island, on the sea shore, and 
thou shalt wait. Towards the ninth hour thou shalt see 
a stork come from the north of Ireland, drawn in by the 
wind in its eddies, and hurried far from her path ; she 



136 Legendary History 

will be weary, and thou shalt let her fall before thee 
almost exhausted on the shore. Arise, and bear her to 
the nearest house ; for three days and nights give lier 
hospitality ; treat her with great care. At the end of 
three days she will have recovered her strength, and will 
remain no longer with us ; she will return to sweet Ire- 
land. I commend her to thee, brother ; for she comes 
from my native land." And when the monk had fulfilled 
his mission, and the traveller had flown, Columbkill 
thanked and blessed him. 

The time at last approached when he was to leave his 
disciples aiKi that Isle of lona which had become so 
dear to him, and his disciples, who knew it not. He 
returned to the monastery, — Adamnan relates it, — and 
sat by the way side where the stone cross arose. And 
while the holy old man, enfeebled by years, took a mo- 
ment's repose, his white horse passed, the old and docile 
servant that had for many a long year borne the milk 
to the monastery. He approached Columbkill, bent 
his head towards him, and God, who can give unreason- 
ing animals feeling and knowledge, doubtless taught 
him that he would never more see his master, for he 
began to moan, and two large tears fell from his eyes 
on Columbkill's breast. The one who led him, seeing 
this, wished to drive him away ; but the saint checked 
him. " Leave it," said he, " for it loves me and shows 
me its grief. Thou who art a human creature, and liast 
a reasonable soul, wouldst have known nothing of ray 
speedy death, had I not revealed it to thee ; and God 
himself has revealed it to this irrational creature." 
Such were his words ; and as, after that, the horse, that 
good servant, went sadly away, he blessed it. 

Thus he continued to the end, uniting the sentiments 



Of Ireland. 137 

of angels to the sentiments of man, the sweetest privi- 
leges of human nature to the mystic privileges of the 
heavenly substances, the most delicate affections of the 
heart to grandeur of mind and thought. 

He died in his island amid his brethren, and the 
cloister alone celebrated his obsequies. His monastic 
life was to have as monastic a close. Columbkill was to 
expire at the foot of the altar, on the steps of the choir, 
amid the chant of psalmody. Thus he died.* At 
matins he entered the church before his brethren ; when 
they came, he raised his hand to bless them ; his coun- 
tenance smiled to the angels, who doubtless surrounded 
him, and bore away to heaven that long since blessed 
soul. 

The church was inundated with light, embalmed with 
celestial perfumes. From the very depths of Ireland, 
Lugaid saw the Island of lona all wrapped in a luminous 
atmosphere ; t but, around the isle, X the sea had raised 
its billows, and, as long as the obsequies lasted, no one 
could approach that land where the church was shut 
up in prayer. 

It will be remembered that Columbkill forms, with 
Patrick and Bridget, the glorious triad which stand 
supreme in the Irish calendar. 

* Cumm., Vita Columbae. f Cumm., Vita Columbae. 

X Adamnan, Id. 

12* 



138 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XYI. 

THE SAINTS AND THE POETS. 

When we read in the legend the history of Ireland 
and her church, we seem to be transported out of this 
sublunary world to a world above, where the spiritual 
perfections of an evangelical race and the marvels of 
Christian fairy dom are unfolded at ease. Poesy and 
sanctity reign together there ; there they dispose of 
humanity and nature, and there their power realizes the 
strange destinies, which, according to certain cosmogo- 
nies, are reserved in the high spheres of heaven to 
creatures become at once purer, more powerful, and 
more happy. 

Christianity has, by conscience and reason, conquered 
civilized society ; but by the imagination, especially, did 
it captivate ruder nations. No race ever surpassed the 
Heberians in lively sensibility, brilliant imagination, 
prompt passion, impulsive humor ; none was more poetic. 
Ireland's imagination was converted and became Chris- 
tian long before her reason and her conscience. From 
the first, a sympathy was declared, an alliance established 
between poetry and the faith, and this intimate, fiuitful, 
and happy union is deeply impressed in the whole 
legend. 

The Irish harp is coeval with Ireland ; music and 
poetry have in all time chanted in her romantic val- 
leys, amid her assemblies, by the firesides of her poorest 



Op Ireland. 139 

cottages.* Druidism adopted them ; the fileas formed, 
beneath the draoi or draouis, a caste whom love of the 
arts and respect for religion environed with a twofold 
honor ; and when the Druids vanished with the faith 
they taught, the bards, immortal as music and poetry, 
remained ; they continued to constitute, amid the na- 
tion, an illustrious college, the depository of history and 
national tradition ; the inspired caste was perpetuated 
in every tribe, and beside each Irish chieftain stood his 
bard, who received from his father, and transmitted to 
his son, the harp and poetic inspiration. They accord- 
ingly always formed a numerous and influen.ial class in 
the country. 

The Druids do not seem to have made a long or 
serious opposition to Christianity. As for the bards, 
their resistance was apparently even less ; and poetry, 
betraying the old religion, her ally, passed from the out- 
set to the banner of the new faith. One of the most 
illustrious bards, Dubtach, when Patrick npjieared be- 
fore Laogaire, was, in the whole vast assemblage, the 
only one who honored the apostle and rose to greet him. 
Pheg or Fiech, his best disciple, followed him ; Macfil 
was next converted, and then the gospel had, in Ireland, 
its poets and popular chanters. t The aid was im- 
mense. Habituated to chant warlike and hospitable 
virtues, they celebrated in hymns and canticles, which 
rapidly spread in every tribe as they passed from mouth 
to mouth, repeated on every harp, in assembly and ban- 
quet, by the wayside and under the roof tree, the 

* McGeoghegan, History of Ireland, p. 36. "Ware, De Hibemise Anti- 
quitatibus, 31. Stanihurst, De Kebus iaHibemia gestis. Giraldus Camb., 
Topog. Hiberniae. 

t Probus, Jocelyn, Vita Patricii, 



140 Legendary History 

story of tlie gospel and Christian virtues, the power and 
history of the new God, the menaces of hell and the 
promises of heaven. They spread the name of Patrick 
and glorified him ; after chanting of chieftain and the 
battle's shock, they sang of the greatness of the new 
prophet, his supernatural power, the miracles of grace 
or wrath that his word had accomplished, what docility 
might hope for, and what obstinacy had to fear. Patrick 
was known before the gospel, the miracle outstripped 
the preaching of the truth, imagination led the way 
for faith. What matter ? Patrick soon arrived ; the 
nations were ready for baptism ; if the neophytes were 
not learned, thej^ were enthusiastic, and in matters of 
faith enthusiasm is more worth than science. 

Hence those poesies, of which Fiech's Hymn was doubt- 
less one of the first models; thence that hymn of Col- 
urabkill, as marvellous as that of St. Patrick ; and so 
many others, which the Irish chanted or murmured when 
they were in the thick of fight, when they passed by 
night the camp or ambush of the enemy, when fire de- 
voured or threatened their homes, when their bark 
rolled or reeled beneath the tempest's shock. Thence 
that glory which so soon environed the names of the 
saints, that power which they owed at once to the as- 
cendant of their sanctity and the prestige of a popular 
renown. These hymns, composed by popular poets, and 
for the people, were in the Irish language. Down to 
our times few have been translated. It is not for us, 
then, to dwell on them ; it is enough for us to state their 
existence, and the effect that they must have produced. 

Nor are we called upon to criticise this popular music 
or poesy. Gerald Barry speaks of the music with en- 
thusiasm J it was the only talent which he admitted in 



Op Ireland. 141 

the Irish. "Never," says he, "have I seen music as 
learned ; it is agreeable, sonorous, and sweet in even its 
quickest movements." He admires the incredible agility 
of the hands, the notes which hurry on and mingle in a 
thousand harmonious torrents, the melodious accord of 
the base and the highest notes, the measure exactly 
observed in this lively and complicated music, the fin- 
ished art with which the musician conceals the difficul- 
ties and hides his very art.* Yet Gerald had seen 
France and Italy ; let us add that he wrote in the 
twelfth century. Stanihurst, who wrote in the six- 
teenth, is more severe towards the Irish musicians, and 
he would fain have us believe that in his time they had 
preserved, of their artistic traditions, only a quick self- 
love, and a sometimes dangerous susceptibility. They 
had, perhaps, degenerated. But Stanihurst still attests 
the singular power that the bards had preserved. " To 
be celebrated by them," says he, " is an immortal joy ; 
to be attacked, on the contrary, is a torture and an 
agony. The Irish can bear every thing ; they are 
patient ; but not one will you find content to gnaw the 
bit of infamy.t If such was, at the close of the six- 
teenth century, the power of opinion on men, and of 
poets on opinions, what was it ten centuries earlier ? 
And what allies must not the missionaries of the gospel 
have found these bards and poets ? 

The saints of Ireland were, moreover, too Irish for 
this alliance, to have been merely politic on their part. 
They loved the harpers and chanters, because they loved 
music and poetry. This sympathetic fraternity, of which 



* GiralduS Cambrensis, Topog. Hibemiae. 
t De Rebus in Hibernia gestis. 



142 Legendary History 

we have seen many traces, is found in a thousand narra- 
tives, and as- an example in the history of the fileas of 
King Aengns. Seven of them were surprised by their 
enemies and killed. Their bodies were flung into the 
deep waters of a neighboring lake, and their harps sus- 
pended on the trees that overhung it. Aeiigus was 
overwhelmed with grief, and he informed Kieran of all 
that had happened. The saint repaired to the borders 
of the lough, and, in the presence of the waters, whose 
calm depth had enshrouded seven homicides, beneath 
the branches where sighed the forsaken harps, he fasted 
and prayed. As the fast and the prayer were pro- 
longed, the waters descended ; then the bodies of the 
seven fileas appeared. Still Kieran fasted and prayed ; 
and then the seven fileas arose, and taking their harps, 
they began, in the presence of the people, the king, and 
the bishop, the sweetest chant that they had ever sung.* 
But the saints did not merely love the harp and verses, 
and those who could make them heard ; more tiian one 
abbot, more than one bishop, could awake the sounding 
chords of the national instrument ; more than once their 
harp followed them in their travels, and tlieir relaxa- 
tion was to draw from it sweet and pious strains. Is 
not Kei win's harp preserved? In Gerald's time it still 
wrought prodigies. 

If sucli is the Irish race, that is to say, eminently poet- 
ical, — if such was the sym.pathetic alliance contracted, 
from the first, between the saints and the fileas, between 
the new religion and the ancient national and popular 
poetry, — we cannot be astonished to find poesy deeply 
impressed in the history and monuments of the Irish 
church. 

* Giraldus Cambrenaa, Topographia Hiberuiae. 



Of Ireland. 143 

There is assuredly in Christianity a great and immortal 
poesy. Not only is there poetry in the vastness of its con- 
ceptions, the pure spirituality of its dogmas, the sublime 
mysticism of its latest aspirations ; it manifests itself 
also in the mortal sphere of human art, by creations and 
wo'rks of a superior order. In the liturgy, for example, 
it has found admirable inspirations and powerful effects. 
But this beauty of the hymns and prayers of the church 
(not to speak of the Hebrew part) is rather musical than 
literary ; it is in the harmony of tlie chant, not in the 
poetry of the words. This is a characteristic fact, of 
which it is, moreover, easy to find an explanation ; but 
it seems incontestable. The Irish liturgy, with a few 
rare and doubtful exceptions, does not seem to have 
escaped the common law. 

But every where else, throughout the whole legend, 
we find united in close alliance the evangelical thought 
and the Irish imagination, poesy, and sanctity. Hence 
that Christian poesy, that Catholic magic, that miracu- 
lous mythology, that poetic ecstasy and asceticism, where 
the ideal conceptions of an orthodox mysticism mingle 
with the creations and borrow the forms of the epic 
and lyric. 

This legendary poesy appears in the Irish legend in 
three distinct forms : the acts of the saints, or the ordi- 
nary history of their life, prophecies and visions, narra- 
tives of travels. The first is naturally the chief one, or 
at least by far the most important. The second appears 
episodically. The third is equally accidental, and rarer. 

It is apparently useless to speak of the first here. 
We have spoken of it throughout ; and this volume, 
thus far, has been but an abridgment, a reading, so to 
say, in the lives of the saiats. If any thing is wanting, 



144 Legendary History 

it is not the poetic intention. Who, then, has curiously 
gathered, accepted without control, recounted com- 
placently, perhaps embellished or multiplied so many 
scenes, so many touching or brilliant, graceful or solemn, 
above all, wonderful accounts? Who, then, not surely 
created, but perceived, contemplated, understood, loved, 
painted with instructive care, a secret pleasure, a sym- 
pathetic emotion, and at times a happy art, quaint and 
unconscious though it be, these expressive and powerful, 
amiable or severe, clement or awful portraits, which 
resemble each other so, yet differ as greatly, and make 
the Irish calendar an animated gallery, an assembly of 
men with a body and a soul, a living church? Who 
but the poetic genius of Ireland? The soul prayed, the 
imagination dreamed ; faith acted, poetry recounted ; in 
the heart of the church, unperceivcd by her, a poem was 
acting and being committed to writing at tlie same time. 

To go back to all these stories, and call out the 
poetic spirit, would be to recommence this volume, and 
make it under a new form — a useless labor, tliat would 
have the fault of resembling a literary study. The 
reader's memory will, moreover, do it easily and quickly. 

It remains, then, for us to seek in the Irish legend 
prophecies and visions, narratives of travels. There, as 
in all that precedes, we shall without difficulty perceive 
the presence of that poetic spirit, whose breath vivifies 
or transforms all the sentiments, acts, adventures of 
youthful Christianity in Ireland, making its history a 
kind of irregular and confused epic, in which the Iliad 
and Odyssey follow each other under strange though 
interesting forms, and where we see already in the germ 
the works of Milton and Dante. 



Op Ireland. 145 



CHAPTER XYII. 

PROPHECIES AND VISIONS. 

Revery, inspiration, enthusiasm, and meditation, con- 
templation, ecstasy, are analogous terms, which express 
in an increasing progression two parallel orders of 
similar phenomena, resulting one in poesy, the other in 
prophecy and vision. Whether the impulse be spon- 
taneous or extrinsic, whether man exalt himself or a 
breath from heaven lift him up, be his work human or all 
divine, there is always an interior fermentation, a burst 
of the spirit, a ravishment of the soul. Every propliet 
is a poet, at least in some degree, and, reciprocally, 
prophecy goes not without poesy ; there is not merely 
analogy of language, but a common origin. Not every 
man among the Hebrews could learn to prophesy ; and 
the life and rule of the prophets, the discipline of their 
scholars, would form poets as well as seers — a severe 
school, doubtless, which should send forth .only irre- 
proachable and austere works. 

According to certain rabbins, says Calmet, to consti- 
tute a prophet required a lively imagination, solid rea- 
soning, enlightened by study ; a life spent in purity, aloof 
from the pleasures of the senses. They prepared for 
prophecy by fasting, prayer, and the assiduous study of 
anterior prophets. They lived ordinarily apart from 
the people, in retirement, in the country, in a community 
with their disciples, building their own cells, studying 
13 



146 Legendary History 

and laboring, but at employments that required no great 
application of mind or body. Elias went clothed in 
skins. Isaias wore sackcloth, the ordinary dress of 
prophets. Presents of bread were made to them ; the 
first fruits were offered to them as to the poor. 

Between the life led by these seers of Judea, at Bethel, 
on Mount Carmel, at Ramatha, or at Jericho, and the 
lives led by the countless saints scattered over the islands, 
rocks, woods, and caverns of Ireland, the resemblance is 
striking. Ireland was in truth a vast school of prophecy. 
Nothing was wanting for the spirit of futurity to reveal 
itself to their gaze ; neither solitude nor recollection, 
nor meditation of the Scriptures, nor poverty, nor toil, 
nor fasting and prayer, nor rude attire, nor the lively 
faculties of the imagination, so active and so easily 
awakened in all men of their race, nor even the harp of 
resounding strings, with mordant sounds, with powerful 
or irritating harmony, which could solicit in them pro- 
phetic transports, as it provoked and sustained them in 
the prophets of Judea. 

Thus the most, the greatest at first, and with them 
many more, possessed, at least at moments, that mysteri- 
ous intuition, that second sight, which transcends time 
and space, or rather suppresses them. Prophecy was not 
manifested in them by a violent crisis, by that trouble 
of a soul surprised and invaded by a master being ; to 
penetrate the unknown future, they needed not to tear 
themselves from the present world. They beheld afar 
as they must behold from high heaven, and prescience 
was in them a tranquil anticipation of the science of the 
blessed. They had not, like the most illustrious of the 
old law, moments of inspiration and fits of prophecy ; 
the spirit resided in them, or rather, it was not another 



Op Ireland. 147 

spirit that spoke in them, but their own ; they were true 
and perfect prophets, or even more than prophets. 

This tranquil, and we may say natural view, untrou- 
bled by effort, was doubtless surer and clearer. But 
we may believe that with the prophetic emotion and 
transport, the movement of the imagination so deeply 
agitated in the ordinary labor of prophecy, was also 
exhausted and fell. We may, therefore, find nought in 
Irish revelations to recall tliat wild, irregular, breathless, 
but almost ever powerful and impetuous poesy, which 
gushed from the soul of the exalted and troubled Hebrew 
seer. To judge more surely, we must read them. Many 
were written, and some survive. Jarlath, Bishop of 
Tuam, had prophesied as to his successors in the see, 
and his predictions are preserved."^ Are they authentic? 
Ware thinks not. Brendan, son of Findloga, wrote 
revelations. Who has seen them? In the fourteenth 
century, Walter Islip collected and published the proph- 
ecies of Patrick, Moling, and Columbkill. Are they 
authentic ?t We may well doubt them. Those of 
Gildas bear far more resemblance to contemporary 
chronicles than to the mysterious chants of the Bible, 
But are they surer than the rest? And were they, 
Gildas was a Briton, and although he lived in Ireland, 
it would perhaps be wrong to judge Irish prophecy by 
Breton prophecy. Still less can we speak of the proph- 
ecy of Cataldus, found at the end of the fifteenth century, 
in the heart of Italy, or of the revelations of Bridget, 
the Swedish queen, attributed erroneously to the thau- 
maturga of Erin. 

The acts do not comprise a fragment which can give 

* "Ware, De Scriptoribus Hibemiae. t Id. 



148 Legendary History 

us an account of the many writings so curious to us now. 
We must resign ourselves to their loss. 

Not so with the visions. 

Prophecy was, among the Irish saints, a sort of ecstasy 
to rise to the highest and most tranquil zones ; accord- 
ing to all probability, it issued in the same time from 
the domain of poesy. The vision, on the contrary, by 
virtue of its very nature, was to remain ecstatic, and 
abide in the poetic spheres of the imagination. There 
is, perhaps, some subtil ty in distinguishing absolutely 
between vision and prophecy. On the one side, each has, 
perhaps, its precise definition in theology, and no one 
for so small a matter would care to become a heretic. 
But it seems, at least, that they diiBfer, and that one is 
more elevated than the other by a degree or a sphere, in 
that ascendent movement that carries the soul beyond 
this world where man's body and intelligence dwell. A 
vision is sometimes a revealing of the future, not always ; 
and that revelation is symbolical, and the recipient 
may not have the key of the symbol. It is not, then, 
a fact revealed to the intelligence ; it is a painting 
drawn, colored, and animated, striking the imagination. 
Under such figure, revelation is, at least in form, an 
em-inently poetic phenomenon. The divine action is less 
complete ; and transparent as the truth may be, it is to be 
seen only through a human veil. The imagination lends 
her aid, and it is from the human element that the vision 
derives the poetic element with which it is always more 
or less strikingly, more or less happily, impressed. 

This may be observed even in the visions mingled in 
the narrations of this history ; they resemble allegories, 
whose idea is invented and whose details arranged by 
a fancy not unseldom elegant, ingenious, and brilliant. 



Of Ireland. 149 

We find in them marks, or at least the appearance, 
of literary composition ; and tbanks to this literary ele- 
ment, we find, too, the variety which the difference of 
individuals and epochs introduces into human con- 
ceptions. 

Sometimes they are dreams ; the soul, without leaving 
the habitual state of ordinary sleep, hears voices in- 
structing or commanding it, in language either clear and 
direct, or more or less enveloped in mystery ; or else 
God's designs are exposed to its eyes in speaking ta- 
bleaux, of which it reads the emblematic signs. At other 
times they are real apparitions, which escape the eyes 
and ears of the sleep-chained body, but which the soul 
distinguishes, sees, and understands, through the mate- 
rial veil. At other times, again, prophetic signs and 
superior beings are manifested to the very senses of the 
creature. Sometimes, too, the body is abandoned to 
the inertia of its gross nature, plunged or retained in 
lethargy or death, while the soul, disengaged for an 
instant, communicates with the events of futurity or the 
scenes of another world. 

The situation and character of the soul thus enlight- 
ened ; the circumstances of the person's life ; the habits 
of his mind ; the ideas and preoccupations amid which he 
is ; the habits, interests, studies, even, of his times ; all the 
influences that he undergoes — may also modify the sub- 
ject, form, and nature even of his dreams, visions, and 
ecstasy. The visions of Beanus, for example, an Irish- 
man of Albania, who lived in the tenth century, and 
whose Life was written at the end of the same century, 
in France, seems to bear the impress of the country and 
the age. The first is emblematic, but the emblem has 
become learned ; we might say that Beanus, even in the 
13* 



150 Legexdary History 

vision, remembered the schools,* and that the spirit of 
the schools is combined with the supernal spirit in com- 
posing the allegory. 

Kaddroe was to be a saint ; God had so marked him 
before his birth. But his father and his companions 
perverted his youth, and he was about to pluno^e with 
them into that violent, warlike, and bloody life then led 
by the Scots as well of Albania as of Ireland. Yet 
Beanus, a venerable saint, did not abandon him. One 
day, while Kaddroe was asleep with his companions, 
Beanus, not far from him, rested his weary limbs. And lo, 
a virgin appeared before his eyes. Her face outshone 
the sun ; young as she seemed, her years were many, and 
she evidently was not of our age. Her garments had 
seven different forms, and their tissue represented all 
that words can say, all that the mind can conceive. Long 
did the aged saint look upon her in admiration ; and, 
at last he asked, " Who art thou, and whence comest 
thou?" She replied, "I am Wisdom; I abide amid 
good counsels and learned meditations, and I am come 
to claim Kaddroe, who belongs to me." And with this 
she disappeared. 

Hitherto we have seen but angels ; here we see the 
genius of the schools, and the seven liberal arts ; the 
allegorical figure has replaced the inhabitants of heaven. 
They reappear in the second vision ; but, instead of one 
of those rapid, simple intuitions, where the eye became 
enlightened and expanded to seize heaven and earth, 
like the lightning's flash or the sun's fast-speeding ray, 
it is a painting rolled out, a scene developing, a repre- 
sentation detailed and prolonged. 

* Vita Kaddroe, (Mabillon.) 



Op Ireland. 151 

He beheld a gathered host of gigantic warriors,* and 
as he admired them, awaiting some grand achievement, 
one of them, who seemed more elevated in dignity, came 
and spoke to him. " The army instituted by the Eter- 
nal King from the beginning of the world must be 
increased. Go," said he, addressing some of his com- 
panions— "go, and take the names of some of these 
sleeping youths ; for these must fulfil their career under 
the eyes of him who commands us. For tliis has he sent 
you hither — he who comes bounding over the moun- 
tains, leaping over the hills. And show this old man 
the career they are to run, and the space they are to 
traverse." Beanus followed them, and he perceived three 
gulfs that yawned beneath the earth ; the two first were 
deep ; the third plunged down a fearful depth, and its 
width was measureless ; but on the other side stretched 
away a fortunate and lightsome shore ; this abyss had 
to be crossed, to please the immortal chief. As Beanus 
trembled for Kaddroe, " Fear not," he was told ; " they 
will all pass through with varied success ; but he for 
whom thou art anxious will pass more happily than the 
rest. Hear, now, the explanation of what thou seest. 
The first gulf, the first step to take, is the voluntary re- 
nouncement of property ; the second, the abandonment 
of country ; the third, the practice of the monastic life ; 
and that happy region is heaven, with all its bliss." 

The vision, under its different forms, may, then, be a 
manifestation of incorporeal substances, a revelation of 
things of the other world, a communication of the or- 
ders of heaven, a moral teaching. Interior or nameless 
voices, allegorical personages, men, angels, devils, all 

> * Vita Kaddroe, (Mabillon.) 



152 Legendary History 

appear and figure there. The demons have, indeed, 
their part in all stages of this mystic and marvellous 
action, in almost all the episodes of this legendary cycle, 
which embraces the history of Irish sanctification. In 
Christianity, whether dogma, history, or poetry, the evil 
spirit has his place and part, as well as in the human 
conscience and human life ; and the part that he makes 
himself is, especially in man's conscience and life, un- 
happily, too great. The disciples of Patrick, in spite 
of their sanctity, and Patrick himself, in spite of his 
glorious privileges, had at least to fight in order to 
triumph over him. The evil one, on his ^ide, after having 
struggled so obstinately in Thebais against the heroes 
of Christianity, could not, without a combat, yield the 
palm to the monks and virgins of Ireland. He could 
not, without resistance, abandon to the soldiers of Christ 
a rich province, a great kingdom, a numerous" people, 
who had so long belonged entii-ely to him. The war, 
moreover, between good and evil, between the demons 
on the one side, sustained by their power, their malice 
and man's own, and on the other side, men supported by 
God and his angels, by what is good in them, if any — 
is not this war in universal, eternal permanence? and 
is not the whole earth the battle field? 

There was then a great war in Ireland, and from Pat- 
rick's arrival — before it even — the demons had sounded 
the alarm. Many a stubborn combat followed, of wKich 
we find traces in the legend. Patrick, Columbkiil, Ita, 
Bridget, all the saints, the three orders in a word, that 
pacred cohort of Christian Ireland, struggled valiantly, 
gained glorious viciories. For Patrick was mistaken 
when he thought that he had driven from his island 
forever those evil spirits, as he was, perhaps, mistaken 



Op Ieeland. 153 

when he believed that he had assured the salvation of 
all the children of Erin. The demons returned. Wlro 
knows even whether they ever left ? The holier Ireland 
became, the more numerous, serried, animated became 
their ranks. Did not Comgall and Mochoedoc see them 
cluster around the monastery ? The more monks and 
monasteries, the more evil spirits also. 

The legend has been unable to give us the exact his- 
tory of this struggle; the demons alone, or the angels, 
could write it; it has related some triumphs, avowed 
some defeats, and by grouping these scattered facts, we 
should form but a scanty Iliad. 

It is- no easy matter even to mark the character of 
these stories. Often, doubtless, the enemy became visi- 
ble ; and from the earliest times the Irish learned to 
recognize him under the forms which he then assumed, 
either by a wild choice or by a merited condemnation, 
and which have become almost as popular as dreaded 
throughout all Christendom. At other times, nothing 
in the legend indicates a material contest, a sensible 
manifestation of the enemy, the assault, and the arms 
used in attack and defence. 

This part, moreover, is less important in the Irish than 
in some other legends. This we have seen in Patrick, 
Bridget, and Columbkill. Earely do these loathsome 
and odious apparitions come to trouble our history. It 
is one of the traits that characterize the Irish legend 
and mark its physiognomy. In this country of easy 
sanctity and natural beatitude, of strong faith and fertile 
imagination, the sterner features of asceticism are soft- 
ened or efifaced, or rather, perhaps, were softened and 
effaced in tradition, by the influence of the poetic spirit. 
When we read the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, 



154 Legendary History 

the Institutions or Conferences of Cassian, we seem to 
breathe the burning air of the sand, feel the thirst of the 
desert, suffer the macerations of fasting, and the strokes 
of the discipline. The devils, irritated by that burning 
atmosphere, are there made envenomed and wicked, as 
the animals are fiercer and more deadly ; temptation 
knows no truce, no mercy ; it is a death struggle ; and 
we hear at every moment the effort and panting of the 
struggle. Amid the Irish saints, we seem, on the con- 
trary, to breathe the mild, moist freshness of the Irish 
streams and valleys ; there the elect are from their 
mother's womb marked with the divine seal ; they grow 
like the lily in the chorus of Athalie, and the soul re- 
poses with them in the calm of solitude, in admiration 
of their serenity, their blessed quietude, and the won- 
ders which their virtue produces, with so quaint a sim- 
plicity, so charming a facility. For some, doubtless, the 
work of sanctification was painful ; and in the life of the 
greatest we find, here and there, traces of austerities 
and toil that merited perfection ; but the Irish imagina- 
tion has forgotten or extenuated the pain of the combat, 
the toil of penance, to remember only the triumph and 
realize the sanctity better ; and in advance, on earth 
even, the saints move in a golden cloud, are environed 
by the nimbus, and crowned with the halo. 

Can we, after this, be astonished to find the demons 
more speedily overcome, combating more rarely, and 
resigning themselves more readily to their defeat? Can 
we be astonished that, among the saints, ecstasy, visions, 
prophecy, are so easy, and that they pass with so few 
efforts from the world where they still live to a world 
in which they live already ? 

Amid all these half-liberated souls, that lived as much 



Op Ireland. 155 

in heaven as on earth, who scarcely were in the body, 
and incessantly abandoned it to go to their true and 
future country, to pass some instants or some hours, and 
who brought back from these mysterious and ineffable 
voyages apocalyptic narratives and divine teachings, 
Fursey, in the different and peculiar circumstances, was 
singularly favored. We shall not give an anticipated 
commentary on his visions. Better at first to give a 
simple and faithful statement, and relate as we translate 
this curious and authentic legend.* 

* Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 4 Jan. (Obs. prsev.) Beda 
Venerabilis, Hist. Eccles. 



156 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

SAINT FURSEY. 

Son of Fintan and Ghelghese, blessed at liis entrance 
into the world, and baptized b}^ St. Brendan, who was 
Fintan's brother," announced and glorified beforehand 
by miraculous signs, Fursey formed his youth in the great 
school of Cluain-Ferth, and early manifested his sanctity 
by mighty miracles. Become a master, he founded 
in the Isle of Rathmath, near the banks of Lough Orb- 
sen,! a monastery, where many disciples gathered around 
him, among them his brothers, Ultan and Foiilan. Then 
he wished to revisit his birthplace and his parents ; and 
in his father's house occurred the strange things that 
we are about to relate. 

He was sick ; X bis strength was exhausted ; his life 
was despaired of. Leaning painfully on another's 
arm, he w^ent out, took a few steps outside of the house, 
and began the evening office. All absorbed in prayer, 
he was murmuring psalmody, when he felt himself en- 
veloped in darkness ; his feet refused to proceed ; he 
was brought back for dead. 

After he felt himself enveloped in darkness, he be- 
held four hands stretched towards him from above, and 
take him by the arm ; and hovering above, four wings 
white as snow. He descried perfectly the hands and 

* Vita Fursei, (Mabillon.) f Corrib. % Yita Fursei, (Mabillon.) 



Of Ireland. 157 

the wings ; the rest of the bodies of the angels he could 
see but dimly. When they reached a certain height, he 
distinguished their heavenly countenances, shining with 
wonderful radiance ; bat in this splendor he perceived 
no corporeal form. Before him, too, he perceived a 
third angel, all glittering, armed with a white buckler, 
and a sword like a flash of lightning. The splendor 
which they diffused, the harmonious beatings of their 
wings, the melody of their chant, the divine beauty of 
their look, filled his soul with indescribable sweetness ; 
for they chanted, the first intoning, the others taking it 
up: "The saints shall go from virtue to virruc ; the 
God of gods shall be seen iu Sion." And the chant 
rose, then descended to the end. He heard also an 
unknown hymn chanted by thousands of angelic voices, 
but he could distinguish only one verse : '" They shall 
go forth to meet Christ." All these celestial counte- 
nances seemed to him alike ; but the light was so 
brilliant that the corporeal form was hidden from his 
eyes. 

Fain would he have remained in the world whose 
splendor and harmony he enjoyed ; but he was to ac- 
complish his human trial, and the angels brought him 
back ; and his soul, ravished by their chants, knew not 
how it had returned to its prison. 

Meanwhile the night had passed, and the cock was 
crowing. He heard no more the voices of heaven ; he 
heard human voices groaning and lamenting. At that 
moment those who surrounded his body uncovered 
his face ; a slight flush tinged his pallid cheeks, and the 
man of God, addressing them, said, " Why do ye cry 
and make this noise?" Then they told him all that 
had happened, how he had died the evening before, and 
14 



158 Legendary History 

how they had remained all night long watching beside 
his lifeless corpse. He arose ; the sweetness and splen- 
dor of the angels returned to his mind, and remember- 
ing their promise to return, he regretted that no wise 
man was nigh to whom he could confide what he had 
seen. In order that the angels, on their return, might 
not find him unprepared, he asked and received the 
body and blood of the spotless Lamb. Thus he re- 
mained that day and the next in great debility ; but in 
the middle of the night, about the hour of Terce, as 
his relatives, his friends, and many of the neighbors 
were there to see him, the shades came upon him ; his 
feet grew cold and stifi" ; he stretched out his hands in 
the attitude of prayer, feeling with joy the approach of 
death; for he remembered the delightful vision which 
had already been once announced to him by similar 
signs. He fell back on his bed, overcome by sleep, 
and he heard the frightful clamors, as it were a great 
multitude calling upon him to come forth. But open- 
ing his eyes he saw only the three angels standing be- 
side him ; the noise and the sight of men vanished ; 
he already enjoyed the concerts and beauty of the an- 
gels. The one on his right hand said, " Fear not ; thou 
shalt find a defence." 

They bore him off; the roof of his dwelling disap- 
peared beneath his eyes. He passed through the howls 
and yells of the demons, and he heard one of them say, 
" Let us go and join battle before his eyes." On his 
left he saw a dark whirlwind, where horrible coun- 
tenances writhed, and ranged themselves in battle 
before him ; for as far as he could see, the bodies of the 
demons were black and frightful, inspiring horror with 
their long, disproportioned necks, their wretched ema- 



Of Ireland. 159 

elation, their large, round, deformed heads. When 
they flew or fought, he saw only an undefined, sinister 
shadow. Who but knows the frightful forms that the 
unclean spijt'its can assume to terrify a soul ? Moreover, 
their features were hidden from him by the dense dark- 
ness, as those of the angels by the intense light. 

The demons fought, darting fiery arrows ; but these 
were extinguished against the heavenly buckler, and the 
enemies fell before the face of the armed angel. Yet 
he would reason with them, saying, " Arrest not our 
steps, for this man has no part in your perdition." But 
the adversary protested, and said, blaspheming, that God 
was unjust in permitting sinners to escape damnation, 
when it is written, *' Not only those who do evil, but 
those who agree with them that do evil, are worthy of 
death." And the angel contended, and the holy man 
thought that the noise of the combat and the clamors of 
the demons were heard all over the world. 

Satan, overcome, like a crushed serpent, lifted up his 
venomous head and said, "He has often held idle dis- 
course, and he cannot without expiation enjoy bliss." 
" If thou findest no capital accusations," replied the 
angel, "he shall not perish for such slight faults." 
Then the old accuser said, " If you forgive not one 
another, my heavenly Father will not forgive you." 
" When has he done vengeance, or whom has he in- 
jured ? " replied the angel. The devil said, " It is not 
written, ' If you take vengeance,' but, * Unless you forgive 
from your hearts.' " " Pardon was in his heart," replied 
the angel ; " there he kept it following human custom." 
The demon said, " As he has received the sin from human 
custom, so shall he receive chastisement from the super- 
nal Judge." " Well," replied the angel, " we will judge 



IGO Legendary History 

him before the Lord." Thrice overcome, the enemy had 
not exhausted his viperous venom ; he rejoined : " if God 
is just, this man shall not enter the kingdom of heaven ; 
for it is written, ' Unless you become like little children 
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.' This man 
has not accomplished this word." " We will judge him 
before the Lord," repeated the angel ; and he combated, 
and his adversaries were crushed. 

Then the angel who stood at Fursey's right said to 
him, " Behold the world." The man of God looked, and 
he saw beneath him a darksome valley ; and he saw, 
too, four fires, separated from each other by regular dis- 
tances. " What are these fires ? " asked the angel. As 
he did not know, the angel said, "These four fires gnaw 
away the world, although all sins have been effaced in 
baptism, by confessing Christ, and renouncing Satan, 
his works and pomps. The first is falsehood ; for men 
fulfil not the promise made in baptism, to renounce Sa- 
tan and all his works. The second is cupidity ; for 
they put the goods of this world before the love of 
heavenly things. The third is dissension ; for they 
fear not, even without reason, to offend their neighbor's 
soul. The fourth is impiety ; for they esteem it as 
nothing to deceive and strip the weak." 

And the fires spread ; they formed one conflagration, 
and it approached. The saint in fear said to the angel, 
" See ! the fire is coming upon me." The angel replied, 
" Thou hast not kindled it : thou shalt not be consumed 
in it. Great and terrible as it is, it measures its ardor 
by each one's faults ; for in it all iniquity shall be con- 
sumed ; and as the body is consumed by evil desires, so 
shall the soul be burned by a just expiation." The 
saint then beheld the angel advance and divide the fire, 



Of Ireland. 161 

which formed two walls, and on each side his two angels 
protected him. 

In the very midst of the flames unclean spirits flew 
about ; they took arms, and a new battle was joined. 
One of them said, " The servant that knoweth his mas- 
ter's will and doeth it not, does he not deserve to be 
beaten ? " " And wherein," replied the angel, " has this 
man failed to accomplish the orders of his Lord ? " 
"He has," says Satan, "accepted the gifts of the 
wicked." " He has thought," observed the angel, " that 
they had done penance." " He should have tried their 
perseverance in penance," said the demon, " and then 
taken their gifts ; for presents blind the eyes of the wise, 
and pervert the words of the just." The angel replied, 
" We will judge him before God." 

The great deceiver, seeing himself baffled, burst forth 
in blasphemies against his Creator. " Till now," he 
cried, "we have believed God truthful." "Well?" 
asked the angel. " The prophet Isaias," continued the 
insolent spirit, " has promised that the fault not purged 
on earth shall be purged in heaven, when he cried to 
the Jews, ' If you will hearken to me, you shall bear 
the fruits of the earth ; but if you will not, and pro- 
voke my wrath, you shall be devoured by the sword.' 
Now, this man has not purged his faults on earth, 
and receives no punishment here ; where then is 
God's justice?" But the indignant angel cried out, 
"Blaspheme not, for thou knowest nought of God's 
secret judgments." And Satan said, " What is secret 
here ? " " As long as penance may be expected," said 
the angel, "the divine mercy does not forsake the 
creature." "But," objected Satan, "there is no time 
here for penance." " Perhaps there is," observed the 
14* 



162 Legendary History 

angel ; " thou knowest not the depth of the divine 
mysteries." The demon closed, saying, " Let us go ; 
there is no judgment here." 

But another continued : " There is still a narrow 
door which few pass, and there we can wait. It is 
written, * Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' " 
The angel replied, " This man has done good to his 
neighbor." " It is not enough," rejoined the enemy, 
" to do good, unless he loves his neighbor as himself." 
"To do good," retorted the angel, "is the fruit of char- 
ity, and God will render to every man according to his 
works." But the devil persisted : " His charity has 
not fulfilled the precept ; he must be damned." Then 
the accursed troop combated, but the angels triumphed. 

Six times vanquished, the devil, according to his 
wont, burst forth into blasphemies. " If God is not 
unjust, if falsehood displeases him, and disregard of his 
word, this man shall not be exempt from torment ; 
for he promised to renounce the world, yet loved the 
world, contrary to the order of the apostle, who says, 
* Love not the world, nor the things of the world.' 
Now, this man was withheld neither by his own promise 
nor by the injunctions of the apostle." To which the 
holy angel replied, " Not for himself did he love the 
things of the world, but to distribute them to the 
needy." " No matter how a man loves them,*' persisted 
the frightful spirit, "if he loves them, he violates God's 
law and his Christian engagement in baptism." 

The angels triumphed ; their enemies succumbed ; but 
the devil still had recourse to insidious accusations. 
" * Unless you declare to the perverse their perversity, 
I will seek in your hands the trace of their blood.' 
So it is written. This man has not, as in duty bound, 



Op Ireland. 163 

preached penance to sinners." " It is written," replied 
the angel, " in those times, the wise man shall be silent, 
for these times are bad. When the hearers despise the 
word, the tongue of the master is tied." But the old 
accuser said, " Yet he should speak till he suffered and 
died ; he can neither consent nor be silent." 

Thus did the demons fiercely dispute and combat, 
until by God's judgment the angels gained the victory, 
and their enemies were overthrown and prostrated. 

Tiien around the saint spread an immense brightnesr^, 
and the angels and the elect chanted, " Pain and length 
of time are nought when an eternity of glory is gained." 
Fursey was inundated with sweetness and joy, and 
raising his eyes, he saw great radiant multitudes ; their 
dazzling wings flashed in space. They came to him 
and surrounded him, and the trouble, the terror inspired 
by the fires and the demons, were banished afar. To his 
eyes appeared two venerable men whom he had known 
in the country of his birth, and he thought that they were 
dead. Approaching, they told their names — Bevan 
and Meldan; and they conversed familiarly with him. 

At that moment, in heaven's calm depths opened an 
ethereal door ; two angels entered ; around them gushed 
with new force the divine light, and the pure spirits 
were heard chanting in four choirs, " Holy, holy, holy, 
the Lord God of Sabbaoth." And as his soul was in- 
toxicated with the inexpressible delight, the ravishing 
canticles of heaven, the angels grouped on his right 
and his left ; and the one on his right asked him 
whether he knew where these transports of joy took 
place ; and as he knew not, the angel told him, " It 
.is in the assembly on high, to which we belong." 

Meanwhile the melody became ever more clear and 



164 Legendary History 

more penetrating, and Fursey thought that they were 
chanting for him. He said to the angel, " It is a great 
joy to hear such concerts." " It is a joy," replied the 
heavenly spirit, " of which we are often deprived for 
the service of men ; and even then the devil undoes 
our work by corrupting man's heart. In this kingdom 
of peace and purity," he added, " no judgment is pro- 
nounced except on human wickedness." But Fursey's 
soul was absorbed in the joys and delights of heaven. 

But lo, from the invisible city came forth, luminous 
as angels, Meldan and Bevan ; and coming to Fursey, 
they bade him return to his mortal life. In silence and 
with a troubled heart did he receive this order ; and as 
the angels bore him away, the two saints said, " What 
fearest thou ? Thy toil is but a day's journey. Preach 
and announce to all that judgment is at hand." Fur- 
sey interrogating them as to the end of the world, they 
replied that it had not come, although it was not far 
off ; that famine and disease would ravage the human 
race, and that a sign should be seen in the sun. 

Bevan spoke long to the holy man, revealing to him 
that God's wrath was suspended over the nations, but 
that it menaced especially their princes and doctors. 
In grave words, worthy of the gospel and heaven, he 
gave him wholesome advice and priceless instructions, 
which Fursey was to transmit to Ireland. " Go, then," 
he said at last, " proclaim to her princes that they must 
leave iniquity, do penance, and work out their salva- 
tion. Declare to the princes of the church that God is 
jealous when they prefer the world to him, and that it 
is serving the world to neglect the care of souls." 

Then the blessed company that attended him departed, 
and he remained alone with the three angels. They 



Op Ireland. 165 

were soon near the great fire ; and the angel, as on the 
first occasion, went before, clearing the way, dividing 
the flame right and left ; but lo, from the midst of the 
furnace a human face, a man hurled by the demons, 
struck the saint's shoulder, and cheek touched cheek. 
Fursey felt his shoulder and cheek burn, and he saw 
that it was a man who on his death bed had left hira a 
garment. The angel seized the damned one, and hurled 
him into the flames. But the spirit of malice cried, 
*' Why repulse him whom thou didst welcome ? Thou 
didst share his goods : share his torment." "It was not 
through avarice," replied the angel, " that he accepted 
his present, but to save his soul." The fire ceased. Yet 
the angel said to Fursey, " The fire that thou hadst 
kindled has burned thee ; if thou hadst not received the 
clothes of this man dying in his sin, thou wouldst not 
have felt in thy body the fire of his torture." And he 
too exhorted him to preach penance to men. 

Fursey found himself above his dwelling ; but he re- 
cognized neither the house nor the crowd of persons 
lamenting, nor his garments, nor his body ; and when 
the angel bade him resume his mortal tabernacle, he 
feared to approach it, not recognizing the corpse. 
" Away with this fear," said the angel ; " even in it thou 
canst preserve thee from weakness and evils ; thou hast 
just now triumphed over the assaults of the evil one ; he 
shall no more prevail against thee." At the same time, 
looking at his body, the breast opened as if to receive 
his soul, and the angel's last words were, "Let pure 
water be poured over thy limbs, and thou shalt feel no 
pain but that of the fire that has touched thee. Do 
good ; till the end we will follow thy steps, and thus we 
shall receive thee amongst us." 



166 Legendary History 

Issuing from the profound repose of death, he sat up, 
and beheld the multitude of his kindred, neighbors, and 
ecclesiastics, who surrounded him. Then he groaned 
over the greatness of human folly ; and thinking how- 
difficult and dangerous a passage death is, how divine 
the reward of those who reach the blissful abode, he 
revealed in order all that he had seen. He ordered 
pure water to be poured over him, and the print that 
that damned one had left became visible. The body, 
strange to declare, bore the mark of the pain that the 
soul alone had undergone. 

Then leaving his house, he preached the word of God, 
announcing to all the people what he had seen and 
heard. Grace was incomparable in him — disengaged 
from earth, giving himself to all, to prelates and the 
faithful, to nobles and kings, amiable to the good, terri- 
ble to the wicked ; and the power of miracles was also 
in him. 

One year had thus been spent in teaching throughout 
all Ireland ; and the anniversary arrived of the day 
when ecstasy had taken him from his body. That same 
night, as many wise and religious men were near him, 
a languor benumbed his limbs ; yet life continued to 
palpitate feebly in his heart, and he beheld the angel of 
the Lord, who gave him useful lessons for his preaching, 
foretelling him that he should pursue this work twelve 
years. 

When that term had expired, escaping from the crowds 
that overwiielmed him, from the ill will of some whose 
envy he excited, he left all he had, and with a small 
number of brethren, went to a little island in the sea. 
Thence visiting, as he passed, the shores of many islands, 
he reached the eastern coast of the Angles, where he 



Op Ireland. 167 

was welcomed with lioiior by King Sigberth ; and by the 
word of God he softened the hearts of the barbarians. 

At tlie expiration of the twelve years his body had 
fainted again, and he had received a visit from the 
angels. They animated his zeal, reminding him of 
Christ's commandment, " Watch and pray, for ye know 
not the day nor the hour." Then the man of God 
hastened to build a monastery in the place which the 
king had given him. It was an agreeable spot in the 
mid.st of the forest, near the sea ; but he left it in the 
hands of his brother Foillan, and went to join his other 
brother, Ultan, who had long lived in solitude, in the 
delight of a contemplative life. But he had not reached 
the time or place of his repose. Scarcely had a year 
pa:^sed when he left his retreat, troubled, too, by the in- 
cursions of the pagans. He wished to visit Rome. 

Clodwig, king of the Franks, and the patrician 
Herchenald, received him, offering him a site to build a 
monastery. A beautiful river, with its calm and teem- 
ing waters, flowed by ; rich meadows developed their 
verdure ; the vine multiplied its tufted branches laden 
with clusters ; a vast forest waved around, wooing by 
the shelter of its hoary trees, silence and recollectedness. 
There at last reposed this soul, wearied by an ardent 
apostolate, broken by the superhuman enjoyments of 
mystic ravishment. There he formed new disciples. 
Ireland constantly sent him others. Later, however, he 
again took up his pilgrim's staff ; he wished before he 
died to see his brothers again. But the angel of his 
visions stopped him some steps from his abode ; at the 
moment of leaving earth for the last time, he was again 
rnpt to heaven, and came down again among men, only 
to strengthen himself with the holy Viaticum which was 



168 Legendary History 

to fling open to him the ethereal gates of the invisible 
city, where light is so radiant, harmony so inebriating. 

His body remained at Peronne, on the hospitable lands 
of Duke Haymon. A church arose, soon illustrious for 
the relics that hallowed it. The monks of succeeding 
ages chanted his merits and his miracles. " Fever and 
paralysis, spasm, gravel, and hernia, also dropsies, all 
other diseases that man healeth not, are quickly healed 
by the grace of this saint."* A life so wonderful, a spirit 
so enthusiastic, a heart so tender, deserved a different 
eulogy. Had Ireland possessed his remains, she would 
probably have felt a higher inspiration than did the 
monks of Gaul. 

Fursey died about 650. His life, or at least the ac- 
count of his visions, such as we have it,t seems to have 
been written about 665. We have thought it curious 
enough to give it at length. 

Man's life, in the Christian view, is a combat against 
an invisible enemy. The history of this combat, related 
by the poets of Christianity, would be, to us at least, a 
mystic Iliad. Fursey 's vision is not the whole poem, 
but it is, so to say, the last canto ; strange poetry doubt- 
less, but deficient neither in sublimiity nor in interest, 
well adapted to move unquiet and believing souls. In 
this dogmatic, religious and perfectly moral poesy, the 
drama does not end with what we call life ; the last act, 
the denouement, remains. Man has struggled against 
his enemy till death ; on leaving this world he meets his 
enemy again, and there a last struggle takes place, face 
to face, between heaven and hell ; heaven, which he will 



* Vita Fursei, (Colgan.) Officiiim S. Fursei Hymn, 
t Mabillon, Obs. praev. Colgan, Adnot. 



Op Ireland. 169 

soar triumphantly to a victor ; or hell, into which he 
will be hurled if vanquished, to be eternally the prey 
of the monster who would devour him. To consider 
this merely as the matter of an epic, surely for believers 
the subject is not inferior to the victory of ^neas, the 
vengeance of Achilles, the fall of Hector, or the destruc- 
tion of Turnus. 

Poetry is a variable and relative thing. If every man 
imagines and thinks in his own way, still more is this 
the case with ages and races. Notwithstanding what 
there is eternal and immutable in truth and beauty, in 
spite of the power of Homer's genius, we do not enter 
into the battles of the Trojan war with the instinct, spirit, 
manners of Greece in the heroic age. We appreciate 
better certain literary merits ; but the dramatic effects 
are lessened. Imagination never entirely replaces na- 
ture. One must be a Hellene of the days of old to feel, 
on reading the ancient poet, the patriotic emotions, the 
warlike impulse, the impetuous passions, evoked by the 
voice of the minstrel. One must needs, too, be a Scot 
of the seventh century, to find in the conceptions and 
accounts of faith all their absorbing beauties. We must 
at least figure to ourselves these souls wrested from 
the materialism and ignorance of barbarous religions, 
and placed for the first time in the presence of heaven, 
hell, and the Infinite. What trouble! what aspira- 
tions ! what terrors ! And when these dramas of the 
unseen were related, whose denouement is an immortal 
triumph, or an eternal agony, who could tell the heart- 
rending anguish, the ardent hopes, the agitation, tumult, 
the outbursts of agonizing consciences, and exalted 
imaginations? 
15 



170 Legendary History 

This is not a literary history, and it is not for us to 
seek how the poet — whether that poet be Fursey or his 
historian — was able to treat such a subject. His work 
sprang, at least, from a soul deeply moved, violently agi- 
tated by the terrors of hell, ardently enamoured, above 
all, of the bliss of heaven ; the imagination which pro- 
duced it possessed, at least in some degree, the poesy of 
mysticism, the poesy of fear and desire, of horror and 
admiration, of the undefined, the ideal, superhuman aspi- 
ration and longings unappeased. It possessed, too, in 
some degree, that dramatic art or instinct which gives 
life to the scenes and personages ; for the characters are 
all true and living here. Are not the demons harsh, 
envenomed, subtle, and malign ? Has not the angel the 
serenity, the calm, of good and powerful beings ? Do we 
not feel that mute soul shudder and shrink, or expand 
with new life, at all the changes in that struggle and 
voyage ? The very theological combat, that shock of 
arguments so singularly mingled and confounded with the 
assault of arrow and sword, and which seems strangely 
borrowed from the practices of the schools, is, in its way, 
touching and true, far more touching and true than the 
Homeric battles of Paradise Lost, Is it not a war of 
souls ? And what are, in this ideal arena, the legions 
that meet, number, and cope with each other ? Are they 
not the good and evil thoughts, good and evil opinions, 
good actions and bad ? And is not the issue of the bat- 
tle a judgment ? But when believing minds saw Fursey, 
a saint, engaged in so arduous a contest, when they saw 
his adversary so pressing, so subtle, so obstinate, so 
ingenious, they might well, reflecting on their own case, 
dread the issue of a similar struggle. 



Op Ireland. 171 

For the poetic emotion was at the same time a moral 
and salutary emotion ; the reader who had painfully 
followed the progress of the drama in which Fursey 
figured, felt happy at the close, to see him secure the 
victory ; but he thought also of preparing his own. 

Amid these relations .come episodes^ — exhortations, 
instructions, which borrow from the dramatic circum- 
stances of the narrative a peculiar eloquence. Fursey's 
vision contains one long and powerful, curious, too, as 
bearing on the moral history of the Irish church. We 
have only indicated it, for it is not our purpose here to 
study the sermons of Ireland. But had the visions only 
presented under a striking form the scenes of the invisi- 
ble world, the interlude of the two lives, the enjoyments 
or sufferings which may befall a soul after terrestrial 
death, they would still be eminently moral. Poesy is 
indissolubly connected with faith, and the emotions of 
the imagination become a direct and powerful means 
of conversion and sanctification. 

Read and meditated in cloisters, they possessed the 
timid conscience and the dreamy soul ; they taught and 
facilitated contemplation, opening to them the fantastic 
space where they might soar. Sometimes, perhaps, 
when they had long floated in the shadows and terrors 
of the evil regions, they returned trembling and fear- 
smitten ; when they had sailed over the splendid ocean, 
and plunged into the torrential light of the happy 
spheres, they returned penetrated and dazzled. Some- 
times, perhaps, our day had become to them but as night, 
and the eyes which had caught a glimpse of the eternal 
sun no longer distinguished the pale sun of earth ; the 
intelligence initiated in absolute realities and true 



172 Legendary History 

truths became insensible to our relative truths and our 
fleeting realities. Then the world would tax with im- 
becility or folly this blindness and this trouble ; but the 
church had the secret. She honored with fear, she en- 
vied with respect, she loved with pride, those privileged 
souls who had fathomed the mysteries of the future 
life, and who returned marked with a divine sign and 
wearied with their voyage. 



Op Ireland. 173 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LABORS OF THE CHTmCH. — STUDIES EST IRELAND. 

Ecstasy did not fill up Fursey's whole life ; between 
these rare instants of rapture where his soul was re- 
freshed and reposed, his whole life was preaching, 
founding, toil. So it is with the Irish church. Prayer, 
pious adventures, mystic elevations, are in her life the 
contemplative and poetic part ; not her whole life. 
Visions are a priwlege, toil a duty ; the privilege is 
granted to a few, the duty imposed on all. The Irish 
church labored. 

" The monk is clothed and fed by his labor," * said 
Paul the hermit. " Let monks labor, and eat their own 
bread," said Fursey.t It was the rule of Patrick, the 
rule of Columbkill, the rule of Columban. The monks 
earned their livelihood by the sweat of their brow ; 
they were cultivators. Where a monastery arose, the 
marsh was dried up, the forest felled, the earth cleared, 
the river forced to drive the mill. The church accepted 
the soil given her, took sometimes what was not given ; 
in the five realms, the monasteries are counted by 
hundreds, the monks by thousands ; and we still regret, 
when we read both history and legend, that the monks 
were not more numerous, and did not take or accept 
more. In Ireland, little land was cultivated ; men lived 

* Egress. Brendan. f Vita Fursei. 

15* 



174 Legendary History 

by war and plunder ; the monks did not plunder, did not 
fight ; they cultivated. Why cite for example one fact, 
or three, or four ? They swarm in the Acts. When- 
ever we take the saints, they are at prayer or at labor. 

As we have seen, they were, from the days of St. Pat- 
rick, founders, goldsmiths, weavers ; they built their 
houses and their churches ; they exercised all arts and 
trades. In the monastic system of association, the first 
law of each community is to be self-sufficient, and the 
peculiar condition of Ireland rendered this condition 
more urgent and more necessary. The monks of later 
times gathered then, and perpetuated on this point, the 
traditions of Patrick's first disciples. 

But one of the works preferred, recommended, was 
the copying of books. In this, as in^many other things, 
they anticipated St. Benedict. Nor are we to sup- 
pose that it was left to the disciples and less learned ; 
the greatest masters zealously exercised it. Neassan, 
Columbkill, Adamnan, and many others,"^ bequeathed 
after them some of these venerable monuments of their 
toil ; for they were preciously preserved. Many 
churches had among their treasures Bibles or Gospels, 
where the hand which had traced them seemed to have 
left something of its sanctity and power. On these 
venerated pages princes took solemn oaths, and no one 
dared violate such an oath. 

These copies were sometimes works of art, and the 
manuscripts of the first centuries might figure without 
disadvantage, according to the descriptions which have 
come down, besides the curious chefs-d^oeuvre of succeed- 
ing ages. In all the wonders of the county Kildare.t 

* Usher, Brit. Ant. Adamnan, Yita Colum. f Topog. Hiber. 



Op Ireland. 175 

says Gerald, I have seen nothing more wonderful than 
the book which an angel, they say, had made for St. 
Bridget. It contains the four Gospels according to the 
Concordance of St. Jerome. On almost every page are 
different figures, painted in various colors ; here a 
countenance bearing the impress of divine majesty ; 
there the four evangelists, with their mystic attributes. 
They have two, four, or six wings. Elsewhere, it is the 
lion, ox, eagle, the human head ; then a crowd of other 
figures, in almost infinite number. If you regard lightly, 
and in a superficial manner, the beauty of the work 
escapes you ; but examining better, the eye, penetrating 
all its merit, discovers such fine and delicate, such clear 
and multiplied lines, mingled and interwoven with so 
much art, and, in fine, such fresh and lively colors, that 
you would style it rather the work of an angel than of 
a man. An angel had at least designed it, and guided 
the hand. Bridget had desired a copy of the Gospels 
made by an able copyist, and the next morning the monk 
was to begin the work. During the night, an angel 
appeared to him, exhibiting to him a tablet covered 
with figures. " Canst thou reproduce these figures on 
the page thou wilt write to-morrow ? " The monk re- 
plied that he could not hope to do it ; such art and such 
perfection were far above his ignorance. " Well," re- 
plied the angel, " let thy mistress pray for thee to our 
Lord, that she may open thy understanding and thy 
eyes, and give skill to thy hand." The next night, he 
returned with new designs, and continued this as long 
as the work lasted. The monk regarded the heavenly 
model, engraved it in his eyes and his memory, and 
on the following day reproduced it faithfully in his 
pages. The angel inspired, Bridget prayed, the monk 



176 Legendary History 

executed ; and thus was the wonderful work accom- 
plished. 

If we believe tradition, repeated by Hector Boetius 
in his history, Fergus, at the sack of Rome, bore off 
books as his share of the booty. Returning home, he 
sent some to the Irish of lona ; for as early as 379, the 
Romans and Picts, having momentarily driven the Scots 
from Albania, some priests and monks had retired to that 
island, where they laid the first foundations of the mon- 
astery which became so celebrated in the time of Col- 
umbkill. Twenty years later, Palladius, coming from 
Rome, brought more books to Ireland, which St. Fintan's 
church possessed down to the close of the eighth century.* 
Not an Irishman, doubtless, even before St. Patrick, vis- 
ited the schools of Gaul, Italy, or Brittany, without 
loading himself with these treasures, less rare, moreover, 
in that day than they became subsequently. It would, 
however, be equally difficult and unprofitable to give 
here a history of books in Ireland. To cut the matter 
short, let us say that the books brought from Cambria, 
France, and Rome were rapidly multiplied. Many 
were needed for so many schools and so many scholars ; 
and besides, the Irish masters were afterwards liberal in 
lending books to the pupils who came from Great Brit- 
ain.t What were these books ? another question, more 
useful perhaps, and more easily answered, as it can be 
resolved by the study of Irish writers. Let us only add 
that among the books handled by the doctors of Bangor, 
Armagh, and lona, some became precious. They were 
enriched with notes, various readings, collations, and 
commentaries. Such was the Psalter of St. Cammyn of 

* Eleran, Vita S. Patricii. f St. Bede, Eccles. History. 



Op Ireland. 177 

Inis Cealltra ; Usher saw fragments of it. "At the top 
of each page," says he, " was collated the original He- 
brew; the right margin was filled with little scholia; 
but only four leaves remained."* At Kells he found 
still a copy of the Gospels in the handwriting of Col- 
umbkill ; and from this precious antiquity he drew many 
readings to compare with the Vulgate. 

Long before the rule and the monks of St. Benedict 
were planted in Ireland; long before the eighth cen- 
tury, and from the first, the Irish monasteries were labori- 
ous and learned schools, where men sanctified themselves 
by prayer, manual labor, and mental application. AH 
that was then known was taught there ; it was the pro- 
gramme of Cassiodorus and Alcuin ; and by the renown 
of the Irish schools, by the intercourse which they kept 
up with Gaul, by the very works which they produced, 
some of them still extant, it is easy to see that they 
were in no respect inferior to the most renowned. 

In those days the roots of science were bitter indeed. 
"How many blows, and what pain," cries St. Columban, 
"does it not cost to acquire a knowledge of music !t 
What fatigue, what affliction, does not the study of 
medicine require ! The lovers of wisdom, the disciples 
of philosophy, to what extremities of distress are they 
not condemned ! " Men had to go into exile, wander, 
beg, suffer hardship, cold, hunger, nakedness, and with 
that, too, the rigors of a strict and severe discipline. He 
loves his son who chastises him with the scourge ; X a 
wholesome principle apparently, as it produced in so 
many disciples fruits of science and sanctity, but terrible 
nevertheless, where practised by irascible or over-severe 

* Usher, Eccles. Antiq. 972. t Columban, Op. iv. J Id., Poem. vi. 



178 Legendary History 

masters. It was the spirit of Irish discipline, and 
Columban himself has inscribed it in his sentences * 
commented and applied it without restriction in his 
rules. 

Nothing discouraged. The love of learning, the ardor 
of living a pious life, the venerable authority of the mas- 
ters, the unction of their teaching, and the vivacity of 
their charity, made all else borne and forgotten. When 
they left these austere schools, it was to enshrine them 
in their memory in sweet and pious remembrance. It 
is a characteristic and touching thing, this unshaken 
homage vowed to the master by the respect and affec- 
tion of the pupil. Adelman, become a bishop and bend- 
ing with years, recalled with emotion to his old fellow- 
pupils the lessons which they had received together. 
Eugenius, seated on the chair of Peter, listened, with a 
deference known to all, to the advice which a Bernard 
gave with an authority equally known ; for the same 
sentiments lionored all the middle ages. Columban, too, 
gave lessons to popes ; and in what terms did he speak 
of Comgall, his former master ! " We do not speak from 
presumption, but for the edification of souls. Instead 
of relying on our baseness, we shall rest on the author- 
ity of a greater master. Now, this is the doctrine which 
St. Comgall gave us in his eloquent lessons, for he is 
before me in merit and science, as in time. I was his 
unworthy disciple, and to attack cowardice and igno- 
rance, I will cover myself with his word."t Nearly 
three thousand monks pressed around Comgall, and 
wherever the chair of one of these revered doctors 
arose, thousands flocked to read, by the light of science, 

* Columban, Reg. Monast., Reg. Coenob. f St. Columban, Serm. ii. 



Op Ireland. 179 

the most difficult books of philosophy and the Holy 
Scriptures. 

Every monastery, every cell, was a school. When a 
child had been divinely marked for sanctity and the 
church, he was sometimes sent to imbibe the rudiments 
of doctrine from the nearest source. The neighboring 
priest or hermit formed his youth. Sometimes even the 
retreat of a recluse, the convent of an abbess, was the 
spiritual cradle of the future bishop ; and when that mis- 
tress was Mida * or Eathna, many years elapsed before 
the disciple had to seek doctrine more profound, or in- 
structors of greater ability. Mochoedoc and Colman 
remained to the age of twenty under female guidance. 
And why could not women transmit science, when they 
had received it from the greatest masters, and sought it 
in the greatest schools ? We have seen Kynrecha knock 
in vain at St. Senan's door ; but all were not so inflexi- 
ble. Lassara's parents wished to settle her in the 
world ; t an angel bore her off to the cell of Kignata, 
sister of Finnian ; then Finnian became her master, 
taught her the Psalms and other books of Scripture. 
When she vowed her virginity to Christ, Finnian con- 
fided her to Kierau, his disciple, and subsequently made 
her an abbess. When Kieran was questioned as to her, 
he replied, " In sooth, I know not what I should say. 
God is my witness, that I have never seen her face, nor 
aught of her, except the hem of her robe, and I have 
never spoken a word to her not in the lesson.'' J With 
such masters the lessons might be profitable, and the 
teaching did not wander from the subject matter. 



* Vita Midae, (Colgan.) f Vita Finnian, (Colgan.) 

X Vita Lassar., (Colgan.) 



180 Legendary History 

This was, for those who were to proceed farther, the 
first degree of study ; from the secondary school, they 
passed to the great school, where the science then pos- 
sessed in the church was taught in all its purity and all 
its pomp. That was the second degree. 

These great schools multiplied ; and disciples multi- 
plied in the schools. Not to mention Lismore, Beg- 
Erin, Armagh, Sabhall, and others founded by St. Pat- 
rick or before him, we soon behold rising Clanderkan, 
Lughmad, Cluainard, Eoss, lona, Rathene, Banchor, of 
which Olcan, Mochteus, Finnean, Comgall, Comman, 
Columbkill, Carthag, Brendan were the creators and 
first masters. With them we must also count Jarlath 
at Cluain-Foss, Fachnan at Ross-Ailithry, and many 
others. Such were the universities of Ireland. Those 
of Armagh, Cluain-Aird, lona, and Banchor were the 
most numerous and the most famous, whose renown and 
prosperity were maintained longest and most brilliantly ; 
for many rose with a man, and might sink with him. 
More than one perhaps had a splendor no longer than 
the transitory establishments in France of Berenger, 
Abelard, or certain schools momentarily famous for the 
presence of a prince of science. But others, Armagh, 
Banchor, lona, especially, maintained for centuries the 
glory of their traditions. lona among its abbots counted 
a series of distinguished names and learned writers — 
Cumean, Adamnan, Segen and Suibneus. 

Without leaving their island, the Irish might then, 
with learned masters and in different schools, initiate 
themselves in every branch of knowledge, in every 
mooted question, exercise themselves in the diversity of 
doctrines and methods ; yet many were not satisfied with 
this : when they thought that they had exhausted the 



Op Ireland. 181 

treasures of Irish wisdom, they went to listen to Gaul 
and Rome. This was the third degree of studies. Gl- 
ean, Mochteus, Finnian, Kieran, in the fifth century, were 
formed in the Gallic or Roman schools, which had sent 
forth already St. Patrick's co-laborers, the first masters 
of Ireland. When the Irish schools were organized, it 
was not altogether so. In foreign countries, they found 
ever, doubtless, new opinions and traditions, and there 
was always something'to learn ; but the pupils had be- 
come masters, and France had more than once to take 
lessons from Ireland. 

All this study was not sterile. The literary history 
of Ireland, and the succession of her schools, do not fall 
in the domain of the legend ; but we must say at least 
that these monastic studies, and the struggles of the 
church, gave birth to many writings. Some still remain, 
most frequently mutilated, indeed — a treatise of St. 
Patrick, some works of St. Columban, the books of 
Adamnan, a treatise attributed to Fursey, a letter of 
Cummean, a commentary of Aileran, some fragments 
of St. Gall, some verses of St, Livinus ; then the works 
of the two Sedulius, the labors of Scotus Erigena ; finally, 
the commentary of Claudius on St. Matthew, the only 
one of his many lucubrations that has come down to us. 
This short catalogue is perhaps incomplete ; but it can- 
not be made much longer. The destroyed monuments, 
on the other hand, if we credit Dempster, or even Bale, 
were innumerable ; more trustworthy authors. Usher, 
Hare, and Cave,* still allow us to believe that Ireland 



* Usher, Britan. Antiq. De Scriptoribus Hibernise, Biblioth. Liter. 
Acta S. Ord. S. Bened. Obs. prv. 

16 



182 Legendary History 

was fruitful enough, and that her masters took in writ- 
ing, as well as in lectures, an active and impoi-tant part 
in the researches and discussions which in those days 
absorbed the doctors and writers — the councils of the 
church. To these we must add homilies, penitential 
books, collections of canons, rules, and monastic insti- 
tutes, all these secondary branches of religious science 
and literature ; then certain historical compositions, 
such as the chronicle of St. Cuanach, the two books, 
which Hanmer attributes to St. Keiwin, on the Origin 
of the Irish, the annals which preceded the excellent 
works of Marianus, and labors that relate to geog- 
raphy, such as the work of Dicuil, and St. Virgil's book 
on the Antipodes, mentioned by Usher. Albinus is 
probably the author of the rhetoric that bears the name 
of Alcuin ; and his companion, Clement, besides his 
Life of Charlemagne, had written, like Dicuil, Observa- 
tions on Grammar, and his two works remain. We 
may also count certain other works on the wonders and 
natural curiosities of Ireland ; and if we add to all this 
the Hymns and Lives of the Saints in Latin and Irish, 
we shall perhaps find that Ireland furnished an inter- 
esting and considerable part in the libraries of the 
middle ages. 

Now, all these names, all these labors, are prior to 
the second half of the ninth century. Erigena alone 
belongs to the last epoch. Irish science, before waning 
and expiring, concentrated in him all its splendor, to 
radiate it on Gaul and the whole church. 

In the ninth century, in fact, Ireland was given up to 
the pirates of the north. It is a bloody and lamentable 
history. For nearly a century, the barbarians coming 



Of Ireland. 183 

directly from their country, or from the Orcades, Eng- 
land, Gaul, or Armorica, traversed Ireland in every 
direction, plundering, slaying, burning ; and there, as 
elsewhere, attacking monasteries and churches. One 
would deem them armed and let loose by the spirit of 
paganism and darkness. The Isle of Saints disappeared 
in the smoke of conflagrations ; it was covered with the 
ashes of its schools and books, irrigated with the blood 
of its readers and scribes. 

" It was," says Jocelyn,* " the time of the darkness 
already predicted by St. Patrick. In those days the 
saints lay hid in grottos and caverns, like coals hid 
under the ashes, flying the face of the wicked, who daily 
sought to slay them as lambs doomed to the slaughter." 
The ancient monarchy of the Heberians all but became 
a Scandinavian kingdom, and Turgesius was, for many 
years, really the prince of Ireland.! But God, who had 
not abandoned it forever, made his passions the instru- 
ment of his destruction. Turgesius loved Melcha, the 
daughter of O'Maclachlin ; and the Irish prince promised 
to send her to him with fifteen of her noblest and fairest 
companions. The king of the north awaited them in 
his mansion on an island of Loch-Erin, with fifteen of 
his noblest and manliest companions. But when they 
raised the veils of their betrothed, instead of timid 
girls, they found hardy youths, whose daggers were soon 
sheathed in the hearts of the pirates. And Ireland was 
delivered. But it had long remained in the night and 
silence of death ; and when the barbarians had departed, 
when light dawned again, when life returned, all ]iad to 

* Jocelyn, Vita Patricii. t Giraldus Cambr., Topog. Hibemise. 



184 Legendary Histoey 

be begun anew ; the work so painfully, so happily ac- 
complished in the fifth century had to be taken up again ; 
they had to collect the fragments, raise up the ruins, 
build and organize new schools. 

This painful and difficult work was, nevertheless, exe- 
cuted rapidly. In the early part of the tenth century, 
Kaddroe came from Albania to seek learned lessons at 
Armagh.* " For," says his anonymous contemporary 
and biographer, " spiritual science did not satisfy him. 
He immured himself at Armagh, and after divine dog- 
mas did not fear to study human science ; he knew that 
Plato had visited foreign nations, and found in Egypt 
the knowledge of the true God. The chants of the 
bards, the harangues of the orators, the systems of the 
philosophers, nothing was neglected, nothing escaped 
him. All that is known as to measure, number, and 
weight, he imbued himself with : the courses and secret 
laws of the heavenly bodies were so profoundly studied 
by him, that he knew them perhaps as well as if he had 
belonged to the heavenly hierarchy. On* his return, 
accordingly, he became the preceptor of all Scotland ; and 
he it was who brought to the schools of his native land 
the mysteries of superior education, for Ireland had not 
yet sent her any of her great masters ;" meaning, doubt- 
less, since Columbkill. 

Finally, at the beginning of the eleventh century, these 
schools still sufficed to form for Germany men of equal 
learning and sanctity — John, Candid, Clement, Murche- 
ridach, Magnald, Isatius, the companions in study of 
Marianus, and Marianus himself, one of the most author- 
ized names in historic science during the middle ages. 

* Vita Kaddroe, (MabUlon.) 



Op Ireland. 185 

Ireland is the country of legends, visits, asceticism ; 
but it is also, as we see, the country of science, study, and 
toil. It is at once contemplative and aetive, mystic and 
learned, and the saints often had the precious privilege 
of possessing in turn the laborious pleasures of erudi- 
tion and the beatitudes of ecstasy. 
16* 



186 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XX. 

EXTERIOR MOVEMENT. -- TRAVELLERS. 

While in the very interior of its cliurch Irish Chris- 
tianity was thus expanding, flourishing, and fructifying, 
like the mystic vine of which the Scriptures so often 
portray the fruitful stock, the perfumed clusters, it ex- 
tended without, and spread beyond, its shores. Ireland, 
scarcely converted, already yielded to that secret power 
of expansion, which made it for four or five centuries 
flow over all Europe. 

The Irish race was adventurous in travel, like all 
those that peopled the great Irish archipelago. In the 
fourth century, Avienus, speaking of these islands, which, 
withal, . he scarcely knew, already witnesses it. He 
speaks of the (Estrymnides, but his verses apply equally 
to Ireland. " Their inhabitants," he says, " plough in 
well-known barks their wide-tossed seas, and the mon- 
ster-peopled chasms of their ocean. They know not 
how, with pine and maple, to adjust the framework of 
their ships ; it is not the spruce which bends on their 
sides ; but strange to say, they employ in their con- 
struction well-knit hides, and in these leathern boats oft 
traverse the vast sea." * All the fleets that in these days 
ploughed the waters of Gothland, Scandinavia, Saxony, 
and Britain, were of the same easy and unsubstantial 

* Rufus Avienus, Ora Marit., v. 94. 



Op Ireland. 187 

fabric. With these vessels the children of Ireland 
made war on Britain, and landed on Armorica or the 
Orcades. 

Here long stopped the voyages of the Irish. Rome 
had not conquered them, and her power held them in the 
narrow limits where their own barbarism .retained them. 
But for Christianity there were no frontiers, and barriers 
fell. Christianized Rome attracted the islanders as they 
became Christians ; and we have seen the origin of the 
movement, which, in the first centuries, bore to Italy the 
precursors and immediate successors of St. Patrick, or 
those who on his arrival became his fellow-laborers. 
This movement, ever on the increase, assumed, under 
the impulse of St. Patrick, a new extension and 
activity. 

If we consider it together, that is to say, if we con- 
sider at once all the travellers, who, for various mo- 
tives, then set out, leaving Ireland to spread over 
all countries, the movement was prodigious. The 
whole Irish people seem travelling ; one would call 
it a migration. The first who ventured to go brought 
back pious and dazzling accounts ; they had seen Gaul, 
Italy, above all, Rome. The basilicas, the monasteries ; 
the pomp that religion displayed with the resources of 
an advanced civilization ; the schools where illustrious 
doctors taught ; the places consecrated by the examples 
of the saints, or the miraculous bodies of the martyrs ; 
the spectacle, in fine, of all the greatness, all the wealth 
of a now ancient church, the universal legatee of the 
remains of Greek and Roman civilization, — had seized 
the amazed soul of the untutored neophytes, and their 
accounts inflamed the imagination of their countrymen. 
They stifled in their island j they launched their barks 



188 Legendary .History 

and hastened to breathe the air of the great Catholic 
countries. Vessels, doubtless, failed them ; then all was 
good in their hands to pass the strait, so large was it ; 
unshapen trunks, rocks, floated and sailed for them ; an 
act of faith, a sign of the cross, made them light and 
faithful vessels. 

They were soon known ; they were every where, or 
rather they passed every where. For if they often set- 
tled permanently on a foreign shore, they wandered 
long before stopping ; and often, too, it was in Ireland 
that they returned to close the long and irregular line 
of their capricious itinerancy. " With the Scots," says 
Walafred Strabo in the ninth century,* " the habit of 
travelling has become, as it were, a second nature." 

" What shall I say of Ireland," cries Heiric,t " which, 
despising the dangers of the ocean, emigrates entirely 
with her troops of philosophers, and descends on our 
shores ? Her most learned masters become exiles, to 
place themselves under the obedience of our wise 
Solomon." Charles the Bald, this Solomon, this Charle- 
magne, — for contemporaries give him, too, that glorious 
name, — had at least the merit of protecting letters, and 
the Irish especially. They were welcomed at their arri- 
val, and when they could not be detained, their depart- 
ure was witnessed with regret. " This did Chromnal 
charge me to tell when he left, for you Irishmen are 
always leaving," says Walafrid to Probus, addressing 
him a graceful reproach, expressing a kindly regret. 

But these inconstant voyagers were not curious or 
useless travellers. If they went for edification and 
instruction, where the ablest masters and most authorized 

* Vita S. GaUi. t Pref. Vitae S. Germani. 



Op Ireland. 189 

churches were to be found, they went also especially 
where there were neither masters nor churches. Study 
then was only a preparation for the apostolate. When 
they were as sure of their doctrine as of their zeal, they 
became masters in their turn, and went forth to create 
new churches, found Christian colonies among the sav- 
age nations of central and northern Europe ; they la- 
bored to enlarge the bounds of the gospel, and the 
apostolate was often but the road to martyrdom ; the 
foundations of the cathedral and monastery oft cemented 
with the blood of the founder. 

Others, following a vocation less heroic, perhaps, and 
hazardous, remained in Christian countries, but there, 
too, were often trials to undergo, and always good 
to do. Amid tribes but yesterday barbarous pagans 
scarce wrested from the depth-stirring agitations of 
invasion, the gospel had not always succeeded in pene- 
trating profoundly into men's manners ; the faith re- 
mained or became gross ; and if the general discipline 
of the church was admirable, if in many parts it was 
faithfully practised, the particular discipline of certain 
countries, and of most monasteries, was weakened, ob- 
literated, or corrupted. In the impulse of their primi- 
tive fervor, the saints of Ireland found that they had 
outstripped most of those who, having preceded them 
in the way, had had time to be weary and fall asleep. 
They awoke them, they raised them up. New or re- 
newed houses resumed the forgotten traditions of spir- 
itual life, and the ancient Lauras of Syria, Palestine, and 
Egypt seemed to rise again in the west, while here and 
there, amid the astonished population, isolated saints, 
by the rigors of their ascetic life, recalled at once the 
memory and the virtues of the most wonderful anchorets. 



190 Legendary History 

Others, in fine, — nor were these, probably, the least 
numerous, — went their way, pilgrims indeed, following 
all over Europe the pious curiosity that led them from 
station to station, from shrine to shrine, from tomb to 
tomb, up to seven-hilled Rome, her catacombs, her tomb 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, and sometimes beyond the 
sea to Constantinople, to the Holy Land. Thence they 
returned with hearts more deeply touched, imagination 
more vividly struck, a will more strongly devoted, and 
they communicated to their brethren of all countries, to 
their brethren of Ireland especially, their emotion and 
their enthusiasm. 

Thus did Ireland for five centuries expand, circulating 
like a current of new life and blood in the veins of the 
church, and doubtless contributing notably to give it 
that renewed youth and vigor which it needed to main- 
tain and complete her toil in the great dilapidation of 
the fifth century, in the great tottering that lasted long 
after the ruin. 

After the ninth century the expansion stops. The 
Irish return to their island ; at least they are found more 
rarely abroad, and do not hold the same rank. Their 
part declined, their action diminished, for their mission 
was accomplished. All Europe was becoming Chris- 
tian. The papacy advanced the work of its preponder- 
ancy. These two works accomplished, all would be 
ready for Christianity, gathering its force in the hands 
of the popes, to expand without, and undertake its war 
of reaction and conquest against Islamism. A new era 
begins, and Ireland is no longer needed. 

In this expansion of the Irish church of which we 
have sketched the course, we distinguish, so to say, 
three currents. Among these travellers or these emi- 



Op Ireland. 191 

grants we distinguish three principal categories : the 
pilgrims, the missionaries, and those who sought to study 
or teach abroad. We shall follow them successively, 
and speak first of the pilgrims. 

Once more we remind the reader not to expect here a 
complete history of Irish travels, missions, and studies, 
but only the indications or accounts which belong to 
the legend. 



192 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE PILGRIMS. — THE STORY OF ARCULPHUS. 

A HOLY man, named Molva, said to Moedoc that he 
wished to go on a pilgrimage to Rome."^' " I will not 
permit thee," said the bishop. " If I cannot see Rome, I 
shall surely die," replied Molva. Then Moedoc took 
him in his chariot, and both disappeared till next morn- 
ing. Meanwhile, it seemed to Molva that he was at 
Rome, fulfilling his vow in the church of the holy apos- 
tles. The next day they reappeared in Fearna, and 
Moedoc asked his companion if he still wished to go to 
Rome. " How could I think of such a thing ? " replied 
the holy man. "Did I not fulfil my vow and offer my 
prayers there yesterday and last night? I am only 
ashamed to go back to my monastery so soon." Moedoc 
sent him off, attesting that he had been in Rome. " I do 
not understand the mystery," adds the narrator, "but 
what I know is, that St. Molva knew Rome like one 
who had long tarried there." 

Pilgrimages were not usually made so easily or so 
quick. We have some difficulty even in realizing how 
they travelled in those days, when men's feet had to bear 
them, unaided except by the staff on which they leaned, 
to the distant bourns, which they sometimes wished to 
reach, across savage or desert countries, among violent or 

* Evin, Vita Moedoc, (Colgan.) t Jocelyn, Vita S. Patricii. 



Op Ireland. 193 

barbarous tribes. They did not find a monastery each 
nightfall. In the abodes where they might knock had 
Christian hospitality replaced that of old ? Six Irish 
clerics, animated with the desire of studying the Scrip- 
tures and visiting the holy places, had journeyed beyond 
the sea. They met St. Patrick, and kneeling down, 
asked his benediction. The apostle blessed them, and 
foretold that they should all be bishops. The oldest and 
most vigorous of the party had taken the books and 
carried them in a fold of his garment, having no other 
place to carry them. Patrick gave him a seal skin, which 
they were wont to spread under his feet when he said 
mass, to make them a sack. The present was received 
with a thousand thanks, and the six pilgrims went on 
their way. They crossed the sea happily, and never, 
during all their way, whether travelling or in the schools, 
did subsistence fail them; on the contrary, a decent 
plenty smiled upon them. 

Thus, doubtless, went most with a staff and a book ; 
all did not meet St. Patrick, or a saint who like him had 
experienced the hardships of travel, or who could lend 
them miraculous assistance. Then they ate the bread 
of charity or the fruit of the wayside tree, drank the 
water of the rivulet, slept on the grass or the rock. 
When food failed, they lived on faith and courage. Did 
all arrive ? Did all return who set out ? How many 
fell on the road, martyrs of the pilgrimage? 

"At that time," says Aethelwerd, in the year 892,* 
" three excellent men from Ireland, all of fervent faith, 
were seized with a pious desire ; they sewed in haste 
some skins, made a currach, and taking a week's pro- 

* Aethelwerd, Chron. lib. iv. 

17 



194 Legendary History 

visions, hoisted their sail, proceeding seven days and 
seven nights, and God's will bearing them on more than 
their arms or oars, they landed in Cornwall. King 
Alfred received them with joy ; but they soon set out for 
Home ; thence seeking the footprints of Our Lopd, they 
journeyed towards Jerusalem. Then one of them died." 
And other two seem to have sunk ; but we can scarcely 
guess the author's text and meaning, so depraved are 
they. Moreover, he does not follow them in all the in- 
cidents or marvels of their voyage. " How," he observes, 
" can we in so few pages relate these great miracles ? " 

Did any commit to writing their curious adventures, 
the description of the nations and places that they vis- 
ited ? No monument remains of, these far and painful 
peregrinations, so frequent and doubtless so interesting. 
The oldest description of the Holy Land is from an Irish 
pen ; but St. Adamnan's book is not an Irish account, 
or rather, though the narrative is Irish, the traveller 
was of Gaul. Arculphus, a Frank bishop, whose see is 
now unknown, went to Jerusalem with Peter, a hermit 
of Burgundy ;he visited all the promised land, beheld 
Alexandria, Damascus, Constantinople, and visited a 
great many islands in the sea. On his homeward voy- 
age he was overtaken by a storm, and wrecked, on the 
west coast of Britain. Taking this delay patiently, he 
continued his course in the country where Providence 
had thrown him, and thus reached the Island of lona, or 
Hy, over whose monasteries St. Adamnan then pre- 
sided. The abbot w^elcomed the traveller, listened to 
his accounts, wrote them at his dictation, and made a 
book useful to all, says Bede,* and especially to those 

« Ven. Bede, Hist. EccL 



Op Ireland, 195 

who know only by hearsay the land of the patriarchs 
and prophets. Adamnan presented it to King Alfred, 
who rewarded the author, and had copies made, to en- 
able it to be in the humblest hands. At a later date 
Bede abridged it, introducing details drawn from other 
accounts. 

The voyage of Arculphus, thus diffused, might, then, 
exercise a certain influence, and we may believe that it 
contributed to popularize the taste for pilgrimages and 
a love of foreign accounts. It was not, however, made 
to satisfy the Irish imagination. The picture of the 
Oriental countries, with their brilliant sun, their mystic 
deserts, whose torrents, mount, and vale had a sacred 
and poetic charm for the Occidentals, and which in Ire- 
land men viewed through the Bible illumined by a 
divine light, paled and seemed unfaithful when re- 
ceived through the medium of a Frank or Burgundian. 
Nothing can be simpler than Arculphus's narrative ; it 
has neither the charm of a poem, nor the emotion of a 
romance, nor even the interest of a journal, where the 
traveller brings himself on the stage and relates all his 
opinions, joys, and trials. It is not even a narrative ; 
it is notes. They are detailed, and their exact sim- 
plicity makes them a precious document in the history 
of the holy places ; but what science has gained poesy 
has lost. A tradition on the origin of Constantinople ; a 
picturesque and popular story, of which the hero is the St. 
George in stone, who towered above his charger in one 
of the squares of Grecian Rome ; finally, the history of 
Our Lord's winding sheet, — these are all the wonders 
that the two French pilgrims gathered by sea and land. 

We know the history of the founders of Constanti- 
nople. Like the founders of Chalcedony of old, they, 



196 Legendary History 

too, were mistaken. God, who had his views as to the 
future city, wrapped the laborers in sleep ; and while 
they slept, their instruments disappeared. They found 
them only on the spot where nature, laboring at works 
of futurity, had prepared the site of a great empire, the 
capital of two worlds. 

The other two legends are not properly legends, but 
stories. A man, leading a horse, comes to the statue of 
St. George ; he had promised the saint, if he protected 
him in battle, to offer him his war horse. Instead of 
fulfilling his vow, he wished to ransom him, and he soon 
began to bargain. " Twenty pieces of gold," said the 
soldier ; " thirty, forty ! " St. George said nothing, 
remaining motionless ; but the soldier's horse also be- 
came motionless, as though of stone.* Thrice did his 
master, believing himself free, seek to lead him away ; 
the animal remained fixed to the earth. " Holy con- 
fessor," at last cries the huckster, " thou wast generous 
as to protection in battle ; but me thinks thee not gen- 
erous in a matter of business." The saint kept the horse 
and the money. Such stories might suit the familiar, 
and at times irreverential, devotion of Greece or Italy, 
or the doubtful simplicity, the captious mind of Gaul, 
better than the poetic but sincere and serious faith of 
Ireland. 

The other bears a far different character, but equally 
indicative of the authenticity of its origin. A Christian 
Jew stole away the holy winding sheet, and till his death, 
thanks to this precious talisman, wealth abounded in his 
dwelling. When he was about to die, he called his two 
sons, and divided his property j the eldest took the bulk 

* Delocis Sanctis, Lib. iii. 



Op Ireland. 197 

of his property, the youngest only the divine relic. 
After some time the opulence of the one was changed to 
misery, the misery of the other to opulence. They went 
on for five generations. At the end of that time the 
relic fell into unbelieving hands, without its beneficent 
virtue losing its efficacy, and this lasted a long while. 
Discussions and rival pretensions at last arose between 
the pagans and the faithful, and it was thus decided : 
Mainnias, a Saracen prince, chosen arbitrator, kindled a 
large fire, and leaving the decision to Christ himself, 
threw the relic on the pile. The marvellous veil escaped 
the flames, floated for a time as though undecided, then 
went to the hands of a poor and humble Christian who 
stood there in the crowd. Who can fail to see here, for 
all its Christian subject, the turn of Oriental anecdote, 
the ever-recurring type in the thousand, thousand nar- 
ratives of their ingenious story tellers ? 

These foreign elements seldom appear in the Irish 
legend ; it has remained pure and national. It is its 
singular privilege, among all the legends ; at least, no 
other seems to possess in the same degree this inappre- 
ciable privilege. It had no need of borrowing from 
its neighbors either saints or vestures, and they could 
scarcely have lent it poesy. 

Beneath Bede's pen, the story of Arculphus, abridged 
and augmented, modifies somewhat ; but too little time 
had elapsed to make the modification notable. Some 
details are added, some descriptions ; some expressions 
seem to take a vaguer air of wonder and mystery ; but 
the cloud is so light that it escapes you, and may be de- 
nied. Surely neither Bede nor Adamnan could cry out 
on writing their book, as Aethelwerd on thinking of the 
stories of the three Irish pilgrims, " How chronicle such 
17* 



198 Legendary History 

great miracles in so few pages ? " The Frankish rela- 
tion did not therefore suit Ireland, and the stories 
which she took down from the lips of her own pilgrims 
bear little resemblance to the topographical information, 
cold description, sterile notes of the two reasonable 
travellers, and speak to the imagination better than the 
figures speak to the eyes, with which Venerable Bede 
illustrates his text. 

Poetry seized the accounts of travels. We know now 
the Irish mind enough to presume that it seized the 
travellers too. It is a matter of regret, doubtless, that 
in this great number of monks and bishops, who, at that 
distant and curious day, visited all the provinces of the 
east and west, some grave and learned men did not re- 
trace, in simple, faithful books, the picture of the nations, 
cities, monuments, human personages, and natural events 
that they met. History would have had its travels, as 
the legend has its own, and we should be at once in- 
structed and edified. But during all these early ages, 
Ireland had its legendary writers and poets, but no his- 
torian. When she could poetize so quickly or so easily 
what it had seen or saw with its own eyes, how could 
it but transform what was afar ? 



Op Ireland. 199 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE PILGRIMS : ^N IRISH ACCOUNT. 

The eyes of man embrace but a narrow space, and 
beyond his horizon the unknown begins ; the rest of 
the world is the domain of the imagination, which can 
open or close it, give it emptiness and nothing, or peo- 
ple it with its works and dreams. Hence that lively 
curiosity, that instinctive credulity, that welcome the 
wanderer's tale, that creative fancy which anticipates, 
develops, transforms, nay, at times replaces them. But 
if all travels awaken the human imagination, travels 
beyond the sea solicit and move it perhaps more. K 
all horizons seem to question our mind, the horizon of 
the sea troubles and agitates it. A moving surface ; the 
advancing and successively surmounting furrows ; plains 
that rock the traveller, seem to journey with him, and 
devour him ; the agitated and transparent depths, so 
seemingly endowed with life, and in turn caressing and 
furious ; lines that disappear, and colors that fade ; 
vague distance, where heaven sinks to the sea, or the 
sea lifts up to heaven ; and in the waving abyss being^ 
of strange form, colossal giants, whose form can be 
but half seen ; terrible phenomena, where heaven and 
ocean seem laboring to blend, and where irresistible 
and destructive forces explode, — these are spectacles 
which enchain naturally poetic races. When they pic- 
ture space beyond space, isles or continents to be 



200 Legendary History 

reached only after passing these barriers or abysses, 
they easily dream of fantastic lands, a different nature, 
new orders of creatures, a whole world of prodigy and 
strangeness. When popular faith assigns to the dead 
a new life of compensation or expiation, it does not 
traverse the clouds, it does not seek it in the stars ; 
it passes the sea, and ocean's deserts seem large and 
impenetrable enough to envelop and conceal the abodes 
which it assigns to future bliss or woe. 

The sea is, then, a marvellous stage for the scenes and 
creations produced by popular imagination. For the 
travellers of popular tradition, its space will be ever 
infinite and full of the unknown ; its archipelagoes 
ever inexhaustible, and Odysseys will ever be the tales 
of mariners. "The Lord," says the Cambrian Ger- 
ald, speaking of Irish accounts, " has done whatever 
he willed in heaven, on earth, in the sea, and in every 
abyss. He is admirable in his saints, and great in all 
his works ; but it is in the remote extremities of the 
earth that unfettered nature delights in the most aston- 
ishing prodigies." * 

The two personages, who, in the Irish legends, open 
the cycle of maritime poems and marvellous adventures, 
are St. Abban and St. Patrick. 

One day St. Ybar,t St. Patrick, and St. Abban 
were in the same vessel on Lough Carman, when an 
unknown monster rose from the waters ; it had a hun- 
dred heads, all of different forms ; it saw by two hun- 
dred eyes, heard by as many ears. Its highest head 
rose towards heaven, and its throat vomited forth water 
in torrents, amid the clouds of heaven; the rising 

* Topog. Hib. t Vita Abban, (Colgan.) 



Op Ireland. 201 

waves were troubled, the .vessel was about to sink. 
Ybar and Patrick knelt in prayer ; but a voice from on 
high said, "It is not you who should pray, but xlbban. 
His prayer will put to flight this apparition from hell, 
and his virtue is hereafter to be invoked on the sea." 
Abban was then the patron of mariners, and he watched 
over them amid the fearful dangers of unexplored 
worlds and mysterious oceans ; yet we do not find that 
he gained this glorious prerogative by labors on the sea. 

Patrick, on the contrary, made many voyages ; we 
have said so already, but we have not related what 
tradition has preserved of the wonderful history of his 
voyages. 

The angel Victor bade the slave of Milcho pass the 
sea.* He placed his foot on a rock, where the holy 
imprint has remained, and crossed the strait. At a 
later date, with the leave and blessing of his master, 
St. Germanus, he left Gaul,t and for long years visited 
the isles of the Mediterranean. It was in one of these 
isles that he met three other Patricks, leading a ceno- 
bitical life in a cave. To join this evangelical society 
a trial was needed. Patrick came forth triumphantly, 
overcame the monstrous beast that guarded the foun- 
tain, and remained there seven years. A more ex- 
traordinary and glorious adventure awaited him else- 
where. 

He was again in an island. J There dwelt, in an ap- 
parently new abode, two spouses, in the bloom of youth 
and beauty, with a woman so old, so broken, that she 
was bent to the very ground ; she could no longer 
walk ; she crawled with dif&culty on her hands. The 

* Fiech, Hymn. f Evinus, Vita Patricii. J Id. 



202 Legendary History 

kind-hearted Patrick wondered, and at the same time 
pitied, this great and sad old age. Much surprised was 
he when his young host told him that this old woman 
was his grand-daughter, and that her mother was living ; 
and her mother, he added, is older and more decrepit. 
Then he related his history. "We lived," said he, 
" peacefully, devoted to works of mercy. Our house and 
our table were open to every traveller ; and according 
to our power we gave to all who asked in the name of 
Christ. One day our Lord himself came in the guise 
of a pilgrim ; we received him as best we could, doing 
all that charity inspired ; but before departing, he 
revealed himself to us and blessed our abode ; and his 
benediction has preserved us in the bloom of youth. 
Our daughter was not then born. She is subject to the 
common law of flesh. As years increase, they weigh 
heavily over her head, and her daughter grows old like 
her. Jesus Christ," he added, " on departing, left us 
his staff, bidding us keep it for a pilgrim who would 
come many years after him, and who would convert 
L-eland." An inward voice disclosed to him that Pat- 
rick was that predestined pilgrim. The saint rejected 
the thought, but our Lord appeared to him. The staff 
of the divine pilgrim never more left Patrick's hand, 
and we see in all the legend the wonderful prodigies 
which it accomplished among the Irish. 

In the very bosom of the Mediterranean, in the very 
bosom of the Provencal gulf, so enlightened, and appar- 
ently so well known, between Marseilles and Rome, 
there was then room for discoveries and marvels. There 
were isles where saints of Erin, like Patrick, and many 
others before him, still more after him, were led by 
angels to find a sweet and silent asylum ; and when 



Op Ireland. 203 

we behold what occurred there, we are tempted to be- 
lieve that these mystic lands, unknown and invisible to 
profane vessels, remained wrapped in some bluish haze, 
impenetrable and transparent, like the veil with which 
Homer's gods covered themselves amid men. 

But it was rather towards the north, there where the 
unknown began so speedily, in seas so often vexed with 
storms, and almost ever veiled, where we almost feel 
the limits of the world, where we can believe that after 
the human zones another opens, reserved and mysterious, 
— there especially was it that they steered their hardy 
barks, or that the tempest hurried them ; there that 
they sought inaccessible and undiscovered retreats. 

Twice had Corbmach vainly tried to find an island, 
one of those tall, rugged rocks, where saints love to 
live alone and exalted, like the birds of ocean, between 
the sea and sky.* In his third attempt he was assailed 
by mortal perils. For fourteen days and fourteen 
nights had his bark, at full sail under the impetuous 
blast of the south, rushed straight to the north.f' 
He passed the limits of human navigation, and it 
seemed as if there was no return for him. On the 
fourteenth day the nameless terror of a monstrous and 
formidable world began to arise on every side. The 
sea swarmed with hideous beasts ; they covered the 
surface, and dashing in thousands against his hide-cov- 
ered creel, stopping and checking his paddles, they 
seemed each moment to invade and overwhelm the 
voyagers whom they menaced to ingulf in these hor- 
rible and living billows. This^ was only one of his 
dangers. Who can relate the^ rest ? 

* Egress Breudam. f St Ad^nnan, Yita Columb. 



204 Legendary History 

Nor, after all, was it necessary to go very far to find 
monsters. They were felt passing in the very waters 
of Ireland. Were they not, too, sometimes even seen ? 
" My son," said Columbkill to Berach,* " if thou goest 
to-day to Ethica, take a circuit, and shun the deep coast, 
rather the little isles, lest thou be alarmed at the prodi- 
gies from which thou shalt hardly escape." Berach set 
out with the saint's blessing and advice, but he slighted 
the latter ; and when he was off Ethica, a beast arose 
from the sea like the leviathan of Scripture ; scarcely 
could Berach, furling his sail and bending to his oars, 
escape the yawning maw that opened like the crater of 
that living mountain, or even the waves that his pas- 
sage raised, like a hurricane. On the same day Bai- 
then sailed in the same waters ; and him, too, Columb- 
kill had told that he should see the leviathan. " Last 
night," said he, " he rose from the depths of the sea, and 
to-morrow he will appear on the surface between Ethica 
and lona." " He and I," replied Baithen, " are in the 
hand of the Almighty." " Go," said the holy abbot, 
" thy trust has saved thee." When the monster ap- 
peared, Baithen rose intrepidly amid his awe-struck com- 
rades, stretched out his hands, and blessed it. The 
monster sank to his deepest cave, and the troubled 
waters grew calm. 

Thus sailed, in search of lost and savage islands, 
the cenobites and anchorets, whom a long and fervent 
practice of asceticism had prepared to wrestle with mor- 
tal anguish, to enjoy the sublime and dangerous delights 
of absolute solitude. Before starting, they had for the 
last time measured their strength, consulted their con- 

* St. Adamnan, Vita Columb. 



Of Ireland. 205 

science and God, in redoubled fast and prayer. If 
they were truly called, Ocean reserved for them one of 
his mysterious cells. Some day their bark discovered 
it ; then, with a narrow rock beneath their feet, the meas- 
ureless ocean around, the infinite heaven above, their 
soul might forget earth, and float in spiritual regions. 
They had only to give their thought to the wind that 
eternally lashed their asylum, and passed over their 
burning brow, to the tireless, countless, endless waves 
that rolled at their feet. Whence came these winds and 
these waves? Whither did they go? Where were 
men ? Where was the earth ? The anchoret was lost 
in immensity. This was a real solitude, melancholy for 
earthly souls, heart-breaking, fearful even, and ill 
omened. But these ecstatic souls bore it unmoved ; 
there they abode, without weakness, without regret, 
without troubles, without fear ; these strong hearts, far 
from shrinking and breaking, dilated. The infinite was 
not too great for them. The spirit alone lived in them, 
and in the spirit lived alone thoughts divine. 

In the legend Ireland appears surrounded by a circle 
of islands, forming a holier halo to the Isle of Saints, a 
sort of radiant glory, where all mystic splendors blend. 
Some distant rays of a world where shines a purer and 
more dazzling light seem to glimmer in this splendor. 

In fact, beyond this indefinite archipelago, peopled 
with living and mortal saints, another archipelago began. 
As you receded from the coasts of Ireland, and the 
countries abandoned to human society, the cenobites are 
more perfect, the anchorets more disengaged from hu- 
manity ; nature changes her aspect and modifies her 
laws ; more monstrous beings appear ; we feel that the 
region of spirits is nigh, that we touch the frontier of 
18 



206 Legendary History 

another world ; we even meet the van of these mysteri- 
ous people. As ever, the evil* spirits are in the front ; 
but if the demons and the damned appear, the angels 
and the elect are not far off ; if hell is on the one side, 
on the other is paradise. There was, and the saints 
knew it, the land of promise. More than one sought it ; 
God, doubtless, had forbidden the path ; one of them 
half saw it. Surely he was the greatest amid his 
brethren ; but his divine will is impenetrable ; others 
after him, who seem to us greater, tried to follow his 
traces ; like him they could but catch a glimpse. Oth- 
erwise can we suppose that, despairing of describing in 
human speech those happy kingdoms of the future, they 
have not attempted to do so ? or that God, revealing 
his works, set a seal on their lips ? 

The first of these happy voyagers was Barnit ; the 
second was Brendan, son of Findloga, later abbot of 
Cluain-Fearth. From birth he had been marked for a 
high destiny. His mother, when she bore him in her 
womb, had seen her bosom filled with pure and brilliant 
gold, and her breasts shine with a dazzling light — expres- 
sive presage of the rich favors that Heaven was after- 
wards to shower on his servant, and the striking won- 
ders that it should be given him to contemplate. 

We will read the exact account of his voyage. We 
know already what Ithaca these Ulysses pursued, and 
on what seas their ship was to pass ; and we may form 
in advance some idea of that monastic and spiritual 
Odyssey, so famous in Irish legend. 

If we test it by the criticism with which we ordina- 
rily analyze poems, it will not be difficult to distinguish 
in the legend the origin and historic reality from the 
mystic and wonderful part. 



Op Ireland. 207 

Brendan was one of the most illustrious chiefs of the 
Irish church. Thousands of monks were grouped, 
serried around him, or scattered at intervals, isolated 
or in colonies, forming a people of ascetics. Afar, per- 
haps, he governed other monasteries and other cells. 
Doubtless he sometimes visited his province. It was, 
moreover, a general custom in the church, and especially 
in Ireland, to undertake pious voyages, to go and seek 
around, and even afar, examples and subjects of edifica- 
tion. Abbots who wished to practise and teach its best 
rules and the most perfect life went from monastery to 
monastery, and the disciples who did not follow the 
master profited, on his return, by what he had seen and 
learned. The purity and unity of discipline were thus 
preserved, as well as the efficacious and fruitful com- 
munion of saints. 

St. Brendan's voyage is one of these visits, or One of 
these pilgrimages. We know how wonderful is that 
land of Erin ; how fertile in prodigies that sea that 
washes and indents its shores ; how lively the imagina- 
tion of that naturally poetic race, now exalted by 
Christian spiritualism. The scenes of the voyage were 
soon idealized. The isles multiplied, receded, became 
less familiar. Men disappeared, a mysterious hospital- 
ity welcomed the voyager. If visible, their sanctity is 
purified and refined ; their mouth utters, their ear hears, 
only the praise of the Almighty. God nourishes them 
by the secret ministry of his angels, and their spirits, 
maugre the earthly tenement that still encases them, 
communicate like pure spirits. Eternal flowers, un- 
known and delicious fruits, ripen for the servants of 
God ; day obscured by no shades of night, sweetened 
and tempered only by transparent veils, that come to 



208 Legendary History 

repose the weary eye of the saints. And in the fresh 
and brilliant meadows, under the fragrant and nutritous 
trees, is endless chant, is tireless procession, holiday, and 
ceremony, that nought comes to interrupt. It is, in a 
word, the ideal of the virtues and pleasures of the 
church, the earthly paradise of*the cloister. 

Yet the Irish monks dreamed better still. Beyond 
these isles, abode of perfection and present felicity, they 
dreamed for their brethren to come a still holier and 
happier land. We have already seen that they durst 
not describe it ; but it was necessary at least that a 
glimpse should be given, its existence vaguely indi- 
cated to future generations, its sweetness and its riches ; 
they led Brendan thither ; none worthier than he of 
such an honor ; and he it was who offered the church 
of his day the first fruits of the good things that the 
future church was to possess. This mysterious coun- 
try, that served as an intermediary between earth and 
heaven, between time and eternity, between the world 
of body and the world of spirit, was bounded, too, by 
the darksome and painful zones of hell ; and Brendan, 
under the hand of Providence, which misled, and yet di- 
rected him, perceived and described some advanced 
isles of the infernal regions ; their fearful noise, their 
corroding emanations, reached him. 

With these exclusively monastic and Christian con- 
ceptions blend the popular imaginings. Strange and 
monstrous creatures pass around the voyagers, attack 
or defend them. On distant rocks they found dangers 
that seemed to show that a malignant power dwelt 
there, spreading its snares ; other marvels, too, — pal- 
aces or churches of crystal and marble, founded on the 
sea, and plunging iu its depths the columns of their gi- 



Op Ireland. 209 

gantic peristyles ; in the very ocean interior splendors 
issued from its measureless depths, changing its waves 
to billows of light ; this too the legend tells. 

We might go farther back, and follow higher still the 
origin of these fancies ; we might at least for some of 
them. This western land, this Irish Atlantis, was it 
America, seen dimly through the prism of poesy ? This 
oceanic architecture of marble and crystal, was it not 
the account brought back by Ireland's hardy fishers 
from their cruises towards the polar ices? Do not 
these unceasing days light up the arctic regions ? But 
of what avail such an exegesis ? Poesy gives no 
account of what it borrows ; and if great works are 
condemned by their greatness to undergo this anatomi- 
cal dissection, we may at least spare the humble crea- 
tions of the legend. 

In these fantastic conceptions, these religious imagin- 
ings, there was matter for an epic, where cloistral and 
popular poesy should unite. Has this epic found its 
Homer? Have these ideas and traditions ever been 
gathered in a composition of just extent. The ques- 
tion is addressed to the men of Ireland, who love the 
ancient days, study, and their country. 

Listen, meanwhile, to Capgrave, or probably to John 
of Tynemouth, whose work the learned say he merely 
edited ; he gives an abridged account of Brendan's 
voyage. It is not merely insufficient and too short ; it 
is evidently mutilated and garbled, and fragments torn 
from the work are found here and there in the legends. 
18* 



210 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ST. BRENDAN'S VOYAGE. 

Brendan was one of the most perfect among the 
saints. His childhood had been formed by St. Mida, 
his youth instructed by Ercus ; and he already directed 
many disciples, when God inspired him to travel. He 
desired that God should give him a land isolated in the 
midst of the sea, and far from men. While in these 
thoughts, a voice from on high spoke to him in his 
sleep. " Brendan, servant of God," said he, " know 
that the Lord has heard thy prayer." Then there came 
to him a saint of the name of Barnit, to whom the Lord 
had revealed great things during his voyage, and Bren- 
dan said to him, " Relate to us the word of the Lord, 
and console our soul by the story of the wonders thou 
hast seen found worthy for thy virtue to see in the 
waters of ocean." And Barnit began to speak to him 
in these terms : " My son Mernocat, who was in my 
monastery procurator of the poor, stole away one day, 
and fleeing far from my face, and wishing to lead a soli- 
tary life, he found an isle in the sea, and dwelt there. 
Long after I was told that he had around him numerous 
disciples, and that the Lord had revealed great wonders 
by him. I went to him. One night that we were 
watching together and rambling over his island, my son 
led me to the banks of the sea on the western coast. A 
bark stood there, and he said to me, * Enter this bark with 



Of Ireland. 211 

me, father, and let us sail to the west ; there is there an 
island called the Land of Promise, and it is the abode 
that God has destined to those who will come after us 
in the last times.' , We began to sail. Thick clouds 
soon covered us ; I could hardly discern the prow of our 
bark ; but at the end of an hour or so, an immense light 
shone around us, and a land appeared. It was great, 
full of grass and fruits. For a fortnight we journe3'ed 
there. Every plant hung with flowers, every tree with 
fruit ; the very stones were precious. On the fifteenth 
day we came to a river flowing from the east to the 
west. We knew not what to do ; we wished to reach 
the opposite shore, and yet we awaited the will of Heav- 
en, when, suddenly, a being of human form, but all radi- 
ant, appeared before us. Saluting us by name, he said, 
' Courage, worthy brethren ! The Lord has revealed to 
you the land that he is to give to his saints. The river 
that you see divides it in twain ; but you cannot touch 
the farther shore : return now whence ye came.' When 
he ended, we asked his name, and whence he was. 
* Why ask who I am, and whence I come, and not question 
me as to this island ? Such as you see it has it remained 
since the beginning of the world. Do you feel any want 
of eating, drinking, or clothing ? You have been a year 
in this country without feeling the wants of the body ; 
sleep has not weighed you down, night has not infolded 
you. Here shines an eternal day ; blind darkness is 
here unknown, for Christ is our light.' Then we set out 
to return, and he left us to return to that isle of bliss." 
This story awakened Brendan's imagination. Then, 
with quick resolve, choosing four of his three thousand 
disciples, he confided to them his project of going in 
search of that land of saints, and took them as his com- 



212 Legendary History 

rades. For six weeks they fasted, breaking the fast 
only every third day. On the fortieth day, they as- 
cended a mountain's top, and there built the bark that 
was to bear them. It was very light, but solid, with a 
deck supported by posts ; they covered it with well- 
tanned ox hides, and carefully pitched the seams. Two 
similar coverings were kept in reserve, and they took 
provisions for forty days. Finally they erected and 
solidly planted the mast, and made the sail and rest of 
the rigging. 

Then St. Brendan ordered his brethren, in the name 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to embark. As he 
had remained alone on the bank, and blessed the spot 
of their departure, three brothers came from the mon- 
astery, and fell at his feet, saying, " Father, permit us to 
follow thee whither thou goest, or else we are resolved 
to die here of hunger and thirst." Seeing them thus 
pressing and offering violence, the saint bade them enter, 
saying, " Brethren, your will be done ; " and he added, 
" This one has adopted a happy resolution, for God has 
prepared a place suitable for his soul ; but he reserves a 
terrible judgment for the other two." When he had 
embarked, they unfurled the sail, and began their voy- 
age, steering towards the summer solstice. The wind 
was favorable, and they had merely to hold the sail. 

After a fortnight the wind fell, and they took their 
paddles till their strength was spent. Brendan en- 
couraged them, saying, " Fear not, for God watches over 
us, and he guides our bark ; trim the sail, and let her 
float ; God will do what he will with his servants and 
his bark." They knew not to what part of the world the 
vessel bore them. Every evening they took some food ; 
forty days had elapsed ; their provisions were exhausted ; 



Op Ireland. 213 

then an island appeared to them full of towering rocks. 
From the midst of this isle many streams ran down to 
the sea. The brethren, exhausted with hunger and 
thirst, wished, even before they found a landing place, to 
dip up water ; but Brendan said, " Beware, brethren ; 
what you would do is mad. God has not yet deigned 
to show you the port, and you wish to steal. In three 
days our Lord will show a spot where we may land, and 
where the wearied shall regain their strength." For 
three days they coasted around the island, and on the 
third, about the ninth hour, they found a port where 
there was room only for one vessel. 

When they had landed, and were walking along the 
shore, a dog, trotting down a path, came to Brendan's 
feet. Following it as a guide, they entered a town, 
where they found a great hall, with beds and seats, and 
water to wash their feet. And while they rested the 
man of God warned them, saying, " Take care, lest Satan 
lead you into temptation ; for I see that at this moment 
he instigates one of you three, who followed us from the 
monastery, to a shameful theft. Pray for his soul, for 
his flesh has already been delivered to the power of 
Satan." Now, the house where they were was full of 
jars, hanging by the wall, of all different metals ; there 
were, too, bits and horns, mounted with silver ; and 
Brendan added, " Let us eat the meats which our Lord 
has prepared for us." Then they sat, and nought was 
wanting at their board. Rising, they went to their beds, 
which were all ready, to rest after their great hardships. 
But while they slept, Brendan saw a child, black as an 
Ethiop, holding a bit, and playing before the unfortu- 
nate brother, in whose eyes he made it glitter. The 
saint arose, and passed the night in prayer till day. 



214 Legendary History 

Two days, by the divine will, they rested on that isle. 
Then they returned to the ship, when Brendan said, 
" See, brethren, does not one of you carry off something 
from here ? " " God forbid," they replied, " that a rob- 
bery should dishonor our voyage." Then said St. Bren- 
dan, " Behold, our brother, whom I warned yestereve, 
has now in his robe a silver bit that the devil gave him 
this night." The brother instantly flung the bit on the 
ground, and fell at the feet of the man of God, crying, 
" Father, I have sinned : pardon ! pray for the salvation 
of my soul." And all at the same moment fell down to 
pray for the salvation of his soul. Rising up, they saw 
the wretched Ethiop escape from the guilty man's bosom, 
howling and crying, " Why drive me, man of God, 
from my abode?" Brendan immediately turned to the 
brother, and said, " Receive promptly the body and blood 
of Christ, for thy soul is about to leave thy body, and 
this is the place of thy burial." He received and died. 

They were reembarking, when a young man came with 
a basket of bread and a jar of water. '• Receive," he 
said, " this offering of thy servant. You have a long way 
to go ; the bread and water will not fail you till Easter." 
Thus they set out and sailed, eating every second day ; 
then coming to an island, they landed. 

On getting ashore, they saw waters, which, coming 
from different fountains, formed a large current, full of 
fish ; and traversing the island, they found flocks of 
sheep, all white, and so numerous that they could be 
seen far off from the land. Brendan told them to take 
one to celebrate the feast, for it was now Easter ; and 
the one taken followed like a domestic animal. It was 
brought to the saint, and by his order a spotless lamb 
was also taken. At the same time, a man appeared, 



Of Ireland. 215 

holding a basket full of loaves, cooked under the ashes, 
with whatever was necessary to celebrate Easter, and 
laid it all at the feet of the man of God, saying, " Father, 
here you are going to celebrate the Sabbath ; but to- 
morrow you will go into the island that you see ; there 
the Lord wishes you to feast the day of his resurrection. 
I give you wherewith to supply your want till Pentecost. 
After the day of the resurrection of the Lord, you will 
sail to another island to the west ; it is called the Para- 
dise of Birds ; there you will rest till the octave of 
Whitsunday." 

After Whitsunday they sailed for three months, seeing 
nothing but sea and sky, eating once every two or three 
days ; then they descried an island ; but for forty days 
they sailed around it without being able to find a port. 
At last they found one, but it was very narrow. There 
were two fountains there, one turbid, the other limpid 
and clear. And as the brethren hastened to draw water, 
the saint stopped them, saying, " You cannot, without the 
permission of the fathers who inhabit this country. Will 
they not give you this water which you now wish to 
steal ? " Then an old man of venerable mien advanced 
towards them. His hair was white as snow, and his 
countenance radiant. Thrice did he prostrate himself 
on the ground before Brendan ; Brendan raised him up : 
they embraced. The old man took Brendan by the 
hand, and walked with him a stadium to the monastery. 
When they reached the door, Brendan asked his guide, 
" What is this monastery ? Who governs it ? Whence 
come the saints who dwell here ? " The old man spoke 
not ; but his thought answered, and miraculously pene- 
trated Brendan^s mind. Seeing this, he said to his 
brethren, " Hold your tongues in silence, lest our breth- 
ren be sullied by our dissipation.'^ 



216 Legendary History 

Eleven brethren soon appeared, attired in copes, bear-' 
ing the cross, and chanting, " saints, arise from your 
abodes ; go to meet the truth ; sanctify the place ; bless 
the people, and vouchsafe to keep thy servants in peace^" 
At the moment that the verse finished, the father of the 
monastery embraced Brendan and his companions after 
Mm ; his companions and the brethren also embraced 
each other. When they had thus given the kiss of peace, 
the travellers were led into the monastery ; after prayer 
their feet were washed, while the antiphen, " Behold, I 
give you a new commandment," was chanted. Then their 
hands were washed ; all sat down, and the table was 
prepared. Loaves of exquisite whiteness and roots of 
exquisite savor were served up. Each of the voyagers 
was placed between two of his hosts, and a whole loaf 
was set before each two. 

After the meal the abbot of the monastery said to the 
strangers, " Brethren, you wished this morning to steal 
water from the fountain whose limpid waters you saw ; 
but you may now draw thence at will, rejoicing in the 
fear of the Lord. The other fount, with its turbid wa- 
ters, serves for our daily ablutions, for it is tepid all the 
year round. As to these loaves, we know not where 
they are prepared, nor how they are brought to us. It is 
an alms that God sends us by one of his obedient crea- 
tures. We are twenty-four brethren, and we have twelve 
loaves every day. To-day, in consequence of your arri- 
val, the number has been doubled. Such are the presents 
that Christ has continued to bestow on us since the days 
of St. Patrick and St. Albeus. Eighty years have passed, 
and yet our body has not grown old in all that time. 
We have no need here of things prepared by fire. We 
suffer neither cold nor heat. When the hour of mass 



Of Ireland. 217 

or the offices comes, the candles that we brought from 
our own land light of themselves in the church, and by a 
divine disposition, they burn without ever diminishing." 

Then rising, Brendan,- and the abbot of the monastery, 
and the brethren with them, entered the church. It was 
square ; the altars and all the vases were of crystal. 
Not a voice or a murmur was heard in all the monastery. 
If a brother had a question to ask, he went before the 
abbot, bending the knee, and speaking to him in his 
heart ; the abbot understood him by a revelation from 
on high, and wrote his answer. When complins were 
ended, the abbot said to St. Brendan, "I attest, in the 
presence of Christ, that for the eighty years we have 
been on tliis island, we have heard the human voice only 
in the chant of praise which we address to the Lord. 
None of us has felt the miseries of the flesh, or the 
approach of the evil spirit who prowls around the hu- 
man race." He said also, " Of the two brothers whom 
you know, one shall remain in the island of the ancho- 
rets; the other, by a shameful and lamentable death, 
shall be plunged into hell." While they thus conversed 
in the church, a fiery dart came from heaven, and all the 
candles that stood before the altar lit up. " You see," 
said the abbot, " these torches which burn ; they consume 
not nor decrease, and the fire leaves no trace or mark, 
for it is wholly immaterial." 

Brendan and the brethren finally reembarked, and 
after some weeks they saw an island, where they found 
a fountain, whose limpid waters were full of- fish and va- 
rious herbs. Brendan tasted it, and warned his breth- 
ren : " Drink cautiously ; this water is dangerous." But 
they disregarded his word, and were seized with a sleep 
that lasted three days and three nights. Meanwhile, 
19 



218 * Legendary History 

the saint prayed unceasingly, asking pardon for the 
ignorance which had led them into this peril. At the 
end of the third day, God awakened them anew. 

They resumed their course, and reached the isle where 
they had passed the vigil of Easter, and the one whom 
they had already seen came to meet them, saying, " Ad- 
mirable in his saints is the God of Israel ; he will give 
his people fortitude and courage, blessed be He." He 
gave them new clothes, loaded their bark with provisions, 
and announced that they should find the promised land 
the seventh year of their voyage, and that God would 
take them back to the place of their birth. 

One day, as they continued their voyage, they beheld 
an immense, monstrous beast appear, with foaming nos- 
trils ; it hastened its rapid course, as if to devour them. 
The terror-struck brethren cried, " Deliver us, Lord ; 
the beast devours us." Brendan encouraged them : 
" Fear not, men of little faith ; God is ever our defender ; 
he will deliver us from the monster's mouth, and from 
all other danger." The monster approached, waves of 
prodigious size rolling before him to the very ship. 
Brendan, seeing terror increase in the hearts of the 
brethren, raised his hands to heaven, and cried, "Lord, 
save thy servants, as thou didst thy servant David from 
the hands of Goliath, and Jonas from the belly of the 
whale." At the same instant, another beast, coming 
from the westward, passed them, and rushed on the sea 
monster, vomiting flames ; and the beast that pursued 
the servants of God remained dead, torn in three parts. 
By Brendan's order the brethren took one, and it served 
them for food. 

Then they came in sight of a certain island. " There 
are here, *so to say," said Brendan, " three nations — the 



Op Ireland. 219 

children, the young, and the old ; and here must remain 
one of the brethren who joined us at the moment of 
our departure/^ This island was a plain, wonderfully 
smooth, like the sea ; not a tree was to be seen — nought 
that the wind could agitate. It was vast, and covered 
with white and purple fruit. There they beheld three 
troops, each separated from the other two by about a 
sling's cast ; they were constantly walking, sometimes 
in one direction, sometimes in another. One stopped 
and sang, " The saints shall go from virtue to virtue, 
and the God of gods shall be seen in Sion." When it 
finished, another stopped and sang, and the third in turn, 
and so on without stopping. The first, that of children, 
wore robes of dazzling white ; the second were arrayed 
in garments of hyacinth ; the third in red dalmatics. 
At sext they sang the Miserere, with other psalms, to the 
end ; and others again at nones ; and at vespers they 
sang again. When the chant was over, a cloud enveloped 
the island ; it was bright, yet the isle was veiled, and 
only the chant of hymns was heard, continuing till morn- 
ing, at the hour of the nocturns, when the new psalms 
began. At dawn they changed again ; then they im- 
molated the spotless lamb, and all came to communion. 
Then two young men approached with a basket full of 
fruit, and laid it on the ship, saying, " Behold fruits 
of the isle of the strong ; take them and give us our 
brother ; then go in peace." Brendan, calling him, said, 
" Embrace thy brethren, and go with those who claim 
thee. Happy was the moment when thy mother con- 
ceived thee, since thou hast merited to live in this com- 
pany. Remember the good things which the Lord has 
bestowed upon thee ; go, and pray for us." 
When he had departed with his new companions^ the 



220 Legendary History 

brethren resumed their way, and at meal time Brendan 
took a fruit; it was of marvellous size and full of an 
abundant juice. He divided it among the brethren, and 
its taste was that of delicious honey. After that they 
fasted three days. Then, behold, a bird, of prodigious 
size, came flying towards them, bearing a branch of an 
unknown tree. The branch fell on Brendan's knees. It 
bore a cluster of enormous size, of a bright purple hue ; 
the grapes were like apples, and it fed all the brethren. 
After another three days' fast, they perceived an island 
all covered with tufted trees, laden with fruit, like 
that brought by the bird, and of the same color. The 
branches, loaded with the fruit, bend to the very earth. 
There were no other trees in the island, and the whole 
country was perfumed like a hall filled with oranges. 
They stopped there forty days. 

Then they tried the sea again, and suddenly beheld a 
griffin directing its flight towards them. It was already 
stretching out its claws to seize the servants of God ; 
but, lo, the bird that had brought the branch plunged 
upon it and killed it. Its body fell into the waves be- 
fore the eyes of the brethren. 

Another time they saw all the sea lighted up ; it 
was so transparent that they could fathom its abyss, 
and distinguish what was at the depths of its waters. 
They also beheld a tower reared from the sea above the 
clouds ; it was surrounded by an open pavilion, with 
openings so large that the vessel could pass through. 
The pavilion had the brilliant whiteness of silver and 
the hardness of marble ; the tower was of the most bril- 
liant crystal, and when they entered the pavilion the sea 
itself seemed to be of crystal, so clear and transparent 
was it to its very depths. They went around this won- 



Of Ireland. 221 

derful monument : the tower was fourteen hundred cubits 
on each side ; and the fourth day they found, on the 
ledge of one of the openings, a chalice of the same ma- 
terial as the pavilion, and a patera of that of the tower. 
The man of God took them, saying, " They are presents 
of Christ, who has shown us these wonders." 

They sailed eight days more, and they beheld a rocky 
isle ; not a tree, nor a blade of grass, and on all sides 
rose forges aqd iron workers. " Brethren,'' said Bren- 
dan, " my soul is in pain for this island, for I would not 
touch or approach it, and yet the wind drives us straight 
upon it." Indeed, they soon heard the mighty panting 
of the bellows, which made a noise like thunder, and the 
formidable blows of the sledges on the anvils at the depth 
of the echoing workshops. One of the workmen then 
came out by chance; he was hairy, and as it were 
mingled with fire and darkness. At the sight of the 
servants of God, he returned to his companions, and 
Brendan cried, " Put off, my brethren ; let us fly this 
island." Already he who had seen them returned bear- 
ing in his enormous tongs a mass of burning, immense 
seething iron, and he hurled it with violence. It did 
no harm to the saints, for it passed over their heads and 
fell more than a stadium beyond, and where it fell the 
sea boiled up as though a mountain of fire had entered 
its bosom ; the smoke poured up as from an oven. All 
the men of the island then flocked on the shore, armed 
with like masses, and they hurled them all, one after 
another, against the servants of Christ. Then they re- 
turned to their lairs, and their lairs at once burst into 
flames, and the whole island seemed on fire. The sea 
around the ships and afar, heated, vexed, seethed, like 
the water in a vessel over a raging fire. The howls of 
19* 



222 Legendary History 

the island, and its fetid odor, reached the brethren. 
Brendan said, " Soldiers of Christ, let us rely on our 
faith and spiritual arms ; watch and be men, for we are 
on the borders of hell." 

The next day they saw, as in a transparent haze, a 
lofty mountain rising from the ocean, its summit lost in 
a dense smoke. A rapid wind drew them on. Then 
the survivor of the three brothers sprang out of the 
boat, and walked to the shore, saying, " Woe to me ! I 
am lost, father ; I cannot return to you." 

A crowd of devils had already seized him, and were 
dragging him off. He was a prey to the tortures and 
flames that devoured him. Brendan cried out, " Woe to 
thee! the end of thy life is an eternal death." At that 
moment the mountain top was descried ; it foamed and 
boiled, breathing in and out fire and flames, which were 
seen to ascend to the height of heaven, and descend 
again to the bowels of the mountain. The whole moun- 
tain, to its very base, to the sea itself, was like a 
flaming pyre. 

On they sailed to another isle. Brendan said, "You 
are going to see Paul the hermit, who lives there with- 
out his corporal life being supported by any material 
food. We cannot enter the island witliout the per- 
mission of the man of God ; await my return." He 
landed alone ; tlie old man came to meet him, saying, 
"It is sweet and pleasing for brethren to dwell to- 
gether." All the brethren then left the ship; Paul 
embraced them, and saluted them by name. His hair, 
his beard, and the hair of his body covered him down to 
his feet ; by his extreme old age, it was white as snow ; 
he had no other garment, and only his eyes and part of 
his face could be seen, On beholding him, Brendan was 



Op Ireland. 223 

saddened, for he said in his heart, *• Woe is me! I wear 
the Iiabit of a monk ; many have placed themselves under 
me to learn the monastic life ; and behold, a man who in 
the bonds of the flesh is like an angel, and is uninflu- 
enced by the miseries of the body." Meanwhile, the 
man of God answered his thoughts : *' Venerable father, 
what great wonders God has shown thee that he has not 
revealed to the other fathers ! and thou say est in thy 
heart that thou art unworthy to wear the habit of a 
monk, when thou art greater than a monk. The monk' 
lives and is clothed by the labor of his hands, and for 
the last seven years God has nourished thee and thine 
by his benefits. As for me, here I am on this rock, 
miserable and naked, like the bird that has only its 
plumage." 

Then Brendan asked him how he had got there, when 
he came, and how long he had led that life. " I was nour- 
ished for fifty-five years," said Paul, " in the monastery 
of St. Patrick, and I kept the cemetery of the commu- 
nity. One day, a brilliant vision appeared to me, say- 
ing, * To-morrow thou shalt go to the sea side ; there 
thou wilt find a vessel ; embark ; it will bear thee to a 
spot where thou shalt await the day of thy death.' I set 
out on the seventh day ; arrived in this island where 
thou seest me. About the ninth hour, another came to 
me with a fish and some twigs. I struck fire from a 
flint, and prepared my meal. Every third day my ser- 
vant came thus from the sea, and thus I lived for thirty 
years. I feel no thirst ; on the Lord's day a rock gave 
me a little water for ablution. At the end of thirty 
years, I discovered two grottos and a living fountain ; 
and I have since lived sixty years with no other food 
than the water of the fountain. My life has already 



224 Legendary History 

lasted one hundred and fifty years, and according to 
God's promise, I here await the day when he shall judge 
me in this mortal flesh." 

After that they sailed forty days, and as they drew 
nigh to an island, a fog enwrapped them, so thick that 
they could scarcely see each other. An hour passed 
thus, and they suddenly found themselves in a great light. 
Before them lay a spacious land, full of trees, loaded as 
it were with autumn fruit. For forty days they trav- 
elled through it, and saw no night ; nor did they see the 
end of the country. Then they came to a large river, 
traversing the island, and a young man came to them, 
embracing them with great joy, saluting them by their 
names, and spying, " Blessed are they that dwell in thy 
house, Lord ; they shall praise thee forever and ever." 
And he said to Brendan, " This is the island that thou 
hast so long sought. Thou didst not find it immedi- 
ately, because God wished to reveal to thee the wonders 
that he has hidden in the vast ocean. Return to the spot 
of thy birth, and bear with thee — for this is allowed — 
as many of these exquisite fruits and precious stones 
as thy vessel will hold. At a time still distant, when 
persecution shall come upon Christians, this land shall 
be shown to thy successors." He added, " that it was 
always thus rich and fruitful, and that it had no night, 
because Christ was its light." 

Then Brendan loaded his vessel with the delicious 
fruits and brilliant stones of that happy country, and a 
favorable wind bore him back to his monastery. 



Op Ireland. 225 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

STRANGERS IN IRELAND. 

Before St. Patrick many Irish had crossed the sea ; 
had gone into the great Christian countries, to ask or 
give lessons. Among the most illustrious, we have num- 
bered Sedulius and Cataldus, for we do not speak here 
of those who, after studying at Rome or in Gaul, re- 
turned to labor for the propagation of the faith in their 
own country. Even in St. Patrick's day, the Irish 
church kept equally active exterior and interior propa- 
ganda. 

Without, this propaganda was threefold, — faith, dis- 
cipline, and study. It was borne especially to the 
Northern Isles, to Gaul, and the vast Sclavonic or Ger- 
man countries that stretched from the North Sea and 
the Baltic to the Danube and Alps. Spain and Italy 
especially felt Ireland's action; but in those countries 
it was less important and less prolonged. 
• Between the Irish and the Cambrian Britons, there 
was a perpetual interchange of masters, lessons, books, 
and pupils. Together, they evangelized Arraoric Brit- 
ain ; we may say that they created and constituted its 
church. But when the time of the Saxons and Angles 
came, the Irish were forsaken by their allies ; the Brit- 
ons would not open the gates of heaven to those who 
had driven them from their homes ; the Irish were 
alone the masters, the apostles of England. So, too, 



226 . Legendary History 

with the Picts ; the Britons, perpetually and cruelly tor- 
mented by their savage northern neighbors, had made 
but little effort to communicate to them the blessings of 
the gospel. There, too, the schools and churches were, 
with few exceptions, founded by Irish hands ; and it 
was the Irish, too, who catechised the tribes of the 
Hebrides, Orcades, and Iceland. In France, they exer- 
cised over discipline and study an influence that Italy, 
too, felt. To the countries that formed the centre and 
heart of Europe, they bore at once faith, discipline, and 
learning. Such is an outline of the exterior labors of 
the Irish church. 

The history of the intercourse of Ireland with the 
Britons of both Britains, the Anglo-Saxons and Picts, 
is in itself a long and interesting history ; it would 
form at least two or three important chapters in the 
history of the Irish church, or even in her legend ; we 
reserve it all ; we shall not treat of it in this volume ; 
we mention it here only to show that it is not over- 
looked. How the Britons furnished Patrick some of 
his co-laborers ; how, a little later, they sent Gildas to 
the succor of St. Olcan and St. Bridget ; how the mas- 
ters of Britain, David, Nennius, Doccus, and Cadoc, 
formed saints who subsequently exalted so high the re- 
nown of the Irish church ; how, on one side, Moel, Mello, 
Rioch, Carantoc, Samson, and many others, left Britain 
to study in Ireland ; how, on the other, Irish masters 
taught in the great schools of Cambria, at Menevia, St. 
David's, in the valley of Roses, at Banchor ; how, finally, 
a double migration of saints from Great Britain and 
Ireland colonized, so to say, Armoric Britain, diffusing 
there the knowledge of the gospel and monastic insti- 
tutions, — these long and manifold accounts are better 



Op Ibeland. 227 

placed in a history of the Breton legend, where they 
develop at pleasure. 

The Irish mission among the Anglo-Saxons, the part 
of the monastery of lona, the history of the see of 
Lindisfarne, and the succession of its bishops, Aidan, 
Finnian, Colman, Tuda, and Cuthbert ; the Irish, after 
a short struggle, falling back before the Roman mis- 
sionaries and Wilfrid ; the foundations and teachings 
of Furseyand Maildulf ; the frequent and uninterrupted 
relations between the two churches ; in fine, all that is 
told by the Anglo-Saxons, chroniclers and legendaries, 
— all this cannot be condensed in a single chapter, and 
belongs to the Anglo-Saxon annals, as well as to the 
Irish archives. The whole story may be found else- 
where. 

A great part of the vast field where Irish activity 
was exerted is thus reserved ; there remain the second- 
ary isles of the north, France, Italy, and Central Eu- 
rope. But in the isles of the north, and in almost all 
Central Europe, there were pagans to convert ; the 
commission was Christian and apostolic ; it was the 
propagation of the faith by preaching and martyrdom. 
In France, Italy, and some parts of the Rhenish land, 
the mission had another object and another character : 
it was the reform of discipline, the propagation of sci- 
ence, by example and instruction. 

The legend has not exactly noted and remembered 
the long and many relations of Ireland's schools and 
masters with foreign countries ; but it furnishes here 
and there interesting indications. It would not be 
easy, even combining all these scattered traits, to com- 
pose a whole — to trace a picture ; many figures would 
be wanting, many lines broken. Some names and some 



228 Legendary History 

facts will suffice to establish the continuity, the tradi- 
tion of Irish teaching abroad, and mark the importance 
which it must at certain moments have had. 

Ireland, a remote province of Christianity, situated 
on the confines of the globe, and almost beyond Europe, 
might well form in its bosom, and spread over Europe, 
its numerous missionaries ; but it would not seem likely 
to call many strangers to its schools. Yet they came, 
not only from Brittany and England, but from Gaul 
and Italy. 

The great luminaries that had enlightened the church 
of Gaul during the second half of the fifth century had 
sunk. Sidonius, Claudian, Mammertus, Faustus, Gen- 
nadius, Avitus, Hilary, those heirs and continuators 
of the great age, had left only rare successors. Csesa- 
rius, Fortunatus, Felix, and Gregory could not fill their 
place. Hence, when the first rays from beyond the 
British sea reached the monks of Gaul, they embarked, 
and as early as the sixth century, we find them jostling 
with the swelling crowd .that filled the monasteries of 
Ireland.* Agilbert, Bishop of Paris, in the next cen- 
tury, and one of France's greatest prelates, was a pupil 
of the Irish, and had spent many years among them in the 
study of the Holy Scriptures.t A Frank king, Daegh- 
berth, spent the years of his exile among them ; | nor was 
it the only time that the Irish schools welcomed royal 
misfortunes, for English princes found, like Daegberth, 
a profitable hospitality in the monasteries of Erin 

The Italians, too, so vain of their science, and so dis- 
dainful, had learned the road to Ireland. They had 



* Vita Kieran, (Colgan.) t St. Bede, Hist. Eccles. 

+ Hedd. Vita Wilfrid. 



Op Ireland. 229 

seen among them those bands of pilgrims come from 
afar to shut themselves up for fifteen or twenty years in 
the obscurity of retreat and the profoundest of studies. 
They had perhaps despised them at hrst ; at least, they 
had' not thought, at Rome, of confiding the apostolate 
of Ireland to them. Rome expected more of her own 
priests ; but when Palladius, Salonius, and Sylvester, 
chosen and sent by her, had failed, — when, a little later, 
they learned the wonders that Patrick and his Irish 
mission had accomplished, with so prompt and marvel- 
lous a power, — they wished to see these laborers nearer, 
and in their work, and many travellers left Italy to visit 
the new church ; there they found lessons that detained 
them, and preceptors that made Italy forgotten. 

While St. Senanus was in the Island of Iniscara, 
where he built a monastery, there arrived, says one of 
his biographers,* a vessel loaded with pilgrims. They 
were fifty monks from Rome. They were divided 
into five bands, for a different vocation made them seek 
different masters ; the first had come for St. Finnian, 
the second for St. Senanus, the third for St. Brendan, 
the fourth for St. Barry, the fifth for St. Kieran. 
They had similarly divided the labors of the way, and 
each band had assumed in turn the direction and work- 
ing of the ship, putting themselves under the special 
protection of the saint whose renown had led them to 
undertake the voyage. 

Women did not fear the dangers and hardships of 
these long pilgrimages, and the very example seems to 
have been given, the path opened, by them. " At that 
time," says a legend, " the daughters of the king of the 



* Colgan, (8 March.) 

20 



230 Legendary History 

Lombards, leaving their country and family for the love 
of God, came on a pilgrimage to Ireland. They were 
nine, and a daughter of the King of Britain came with 
them. Patrick gave them a place where they could lead 
a holy life, and there they abode till their death." 

If in the sixth century, and Patrick's own day, Ire- 
land, now Christian, and open to pilgrims of science 
and piety, beheld vessels from Gaul and Italy enter her 
ports, she doubtless subsequently received more numer- 
ous visits. Men came from regions more remote, from 
the very depths of Egypt.* Foreign nations sowed 
their bones on that holy land ; but Ireland piously 
gathered them, and hospitable to the end, she inscribed 
the memory and merits of her guests in her prayers, as 
on her memory. If we believe certain traditions, they 
were not isolated travellers ; it was not one ship, it was 
whole fleets, that landed on the Irish shores armies 
from France and Gaul, for a conquest or an invasion. 
" Holy pilgrims of Rome," says the Litany of Aengus, 
*• who came in one hundred and fifty ships, following 
Natalis, Elias, Neman, and Corcnutan, pray for us."t 
*' Holy strangers, who came to the number of five hun- 
dred and twenty from beyond the sea, under the gui- 
dance of Bishop Boethius," &c. "When these expeditions 
arrived on the Irish coast, they may have well caused 
alarm. 

Without taking literally the statistics swelled by pride 
or popular imagination, without believing in these vast 
armaments that the legend sends from the ports of the 
Mediterranean, the Channel, or the Atlantic, we may at 
least conclude, in default of other testimony, that a con- 

* Eleran. Yita Fatricii. t Aengus, Litaniee. 



Of Ireland. 231 

siderable intercourse grew up between the island and 
the continent, and that a twofold current at the same 
time carried the Irish abroad, and foreigners to Ireland. 
These testimonies abound in the Acts : to those already 
cited we might add many others, without, however, any 
great interest, and with little utility. 



232 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XXY. 

IRISH MASTERS ABROAD. 

The Irish, in fact, did not wait to be sought in their 
island. If disciples went in search of masters, masters 
went in search of disciples. From the fifth century 
to the twelfth, holy and learned men, formed in the insu- 
lar schools, brought to the continent their zeal and light ; 
and from Fridolinus to Marianus, names more or less 
illustrious in science and the church perpetuated abroad 
the tradition of Irish studies and discipline. 

For air these masters were at the same time saints. 
In that age of true Christianity and true spiritualism, 
science gave sanctity, and sanctity science : at least, one 
prepared for the other. Men studied to perfect their 
souls. Man had not then been divided, to put on one 
side conscience, virtue, divine aspirations, and on the 
other reason, knowledge, human pretensions ; the soul 
on one side, the spirit on the other. The mind was 
elevated by the progress of the soul, the soul profited 
by the labors of the mind : they were two united forces, 
directed towards a single object by a being who had no 
war in himself and arrived simultaneously at good and 
science, that is, at salvation and God. Their science 
was obscure and limited. What then ? They desired, 
sought, and loved it, not for its own sake, for of itself 
it is nothing, but because it is at once the way of truth, 
of good, and of God. They had not science, but they 



Gp Ireland. 233 

had what is better, the spirit of science. Still less did 
they think of making science a means of earthly and 
material enjoyment, the mind a vile servant of the body. 
Who would have dreamed, in these truly religious 
schools, of thus profaning the purest, most divine in- 
strument that man has to work the salvation of his 
soul ? The history of their whole life would not sug- 
gest such a thought ; and the mere introduction of this 
idea and this question in these pages seems a strange 
anachronism, an offensive blunder. Such were the 
teachers that Ireland sent forth ; and if, among those 
whose names shall be cited, a single one seems to form 
an exception, he shall be carefully pointed out. 

The history of such a teaching would surely be of 
great interest, and would embrace high and salutary 
instruction. To follow these men through their whole 
life ; to hear the thoughts of their meditations and the 
word of their lessons ; to see them forming themselves 
and forming others ; to learn how they could so indis- 
solubly unite the training of the mind and the form- 
ing of the soul ; how they taught and practised the sci- 
ence of salvation, for them the science of sciences, not 
because it is the greatest, but because it is the end of 
all, the divine synthesis, as it were, that contains and 
completes them, — this would be a moral study, out- 
weighing far chapters of literary history. Such a book, 
written by one of the masters of Christian spirituality, 
would be a supplement to the Following of Christ, 

It would be interesting, too, to reconstruct the purely 
scientific part of their teaching, and give the exact 
state of Irish science. They say little who define the 
science of the middle ages by the formula of the seven 
liberal arts. This was only a programme. Bach age, 
20* 



234 Legendary History 

each school, each master, understood, explained, and 
developed it in his own way, and according to the scope 
of his mind and his learning. If the differences were 
not so great, the progress as prompt, as regular as might 
be desired, they were appreciable ; their very fluctua- 
tions are not devoid of interest. 

Yet the legend could not satisfy so much curiosity : it 
is not so profound and so learned ; it has been satisfied 
with bequeathing us the names of some of those who 
bore abroad the lessons they had received at home ; it 
has not given us the secrets of their consciences, ana- 
lyzed their lessons ; it has not counted their steps, nor 
always the works created by their hands. 

In the fifth century, Fridolinus began in Gaul the 
reputation of the new masters. In the following age, 
St. Gall, in the heart of the Helvetic Mountains, founded 
the great school which bore his name, while Columban 
filled all Gaul and Italy with his renown. In the 
seventh, Chrauding and Dicuil founded their monasteries 
in Belgium and Burgundy ; worn out with journeys and 
ecstasies, St. Fursey reposed at Lagny, and created 
there, before his death, a flourishing house. 

Livinus, in the eighth, established himself in Frise- 
land ; and later, John, Albinus, Clement, illumined with 
their light the end of that century and the commence- 
ment of the next ; and with them we must count the no 
less learned nor less celebrated Dungal. Then came 
another John, the famous Erigena, who held near 
Charles the Bald the rank that Alcuin did with Charle- 
magne. Then Probus, who directed the strides of St. 
Alban at Mentz ; and those labors excited the interest 
of the whole learned church. In the tenth, Kaddroe, 
first monk at Fleury, then abbot of Wasor, and finally 



Op Ireland. 235 

of St. Clement's at Mentz. At TVasor, Forannan had 
preceded him. Finallj, in the eleventh century, Mari- 
anus, with his companions, illustrated successively with 
his sanctity and learning Cologne, Fulda, Ratisbonne, 
and Mentz. 

These are only the most illustrious : w^ho could count 
the disciples who followed them, or came to seek them 
from the heart of Ireland, and who succeeded them in 
the direction of their monasteries ? Who could count 
the houses conducted, founded, peopled, by the Irish ? 
Luxeuil, St. Gall, Bobbio, were, in France, Switzerland, 
and Italy, the most celebrated and flourishing of these 
colonies ; but how many others arose and prospered in 
the Alps, in France, in the Low Countries, in Germany ? 
Open the Martyrology and seek those who came to cast 
on a foreign soil the seed of their virtues and learning ; 
their names fill the page. And for one name preserved 
how many are lost ! What studies ignored, what merits 
unknown, what sanctity less perfect or more concealed I 
Beneath the names that survive and float on the surface, 
there are waves of names overwhelmed and lost. 

When Clement and Albinus arrived in France, in 
791, Charlemagne was already endeavoring to infuse 
life into languishing studies ; at least he thought of it. 
" At that time," says an author" " two Scots from Ire- 
land landed in France with some merchants from Great 
Britain. They were men of incomparable erudition in 
sacred and profane learning. They exposed nothing for 
sale, displayed no merchandise, but they cried to the 
crowd that flocked around to purchase, " If any man 
wishes wisdom, let him come and apply to us, for we sell 

* B. Notker, the Stammerer. 



236 Legendary History 

it." "They said this,'^ adds Notker, quaintly, "becaus^e 
they saw people take only what was sold, and they thus 
urged them to take wisdom with the other things, or 
else wished to surprise and strike their minds/' They 
cried out thus for a long time ; men wondered, and 
thought them mad, till at last the tidings reached the 
ears of King Charles. An eager lover of wisdom, he 
made them come in haste, and asked them whether it 
was true, as report stated, that they bore learning with 
them. " We have," they replied ; " and in the name of 
the Lord we are willing to communicate it to those who 
seek it worthily." He then asked what they sought in 
exchange. " Give us," they replied, " a place for our 
abode, disciples of good understanding, and what 
strangers need — food and clothing." Charles's heart 
was filled with joy ; at first he kept them near him ; but 
later, when harassed by all kinds of wars, he decided 
that Clement should remain in France, confiding to 
him a certain number of children of all ranks, whom 
he placed in suitable positions, and for whose main- 
tenance he provided. As to Albinus, he sent him to 
Italy, and gave him the monastery of St. Augustine, 
near Pavia, to receive all who might wish to study 
under him. Then it was that Alcuin, from Great 
Britain, seeing that Charles thus royally welcomed the 
learned, also came to France. Vincent of Beauvais, 
who repeats this account in his Historical Mirror, adds 
that another Irishman, named John, was with Claudi- 
us, Clement, Alcuin, and Rabanus, one of the founders 
of the school of Paris. Dungal was in France at the 
same time,^ and we still possess the letter which Alcuin 
drew from him in regard to an eclipse ; for it seems 

♦ Spicilegixun Dacherii* 



Of Ireland. 237 

that the Irish were authorities especially in astronomy ; 
the great disputes with regard to Easter had doubtless 
led them to study profoundly all that related to time 
and its divisions. On some points they outstripped 
opinions generally received in the church. Yirgil came 
to France in the time of King Pepin.* The Frank 
monarch, charmed with his learning, kept him two 
years at his court, and then permitted him to join Win- 
ifred's mission on the Rhine. There, too, were Dub- 
dan, Clement, and Sidonius, laboring under the orders 
of the great Archbishop of Mentz. It was a valiant and 
active mission ; churches and schools were erected ; 
they preached the gospel, but they wrote, discussed, 
while awaiting the trial of the confessor, or the tri- 
umph of the martyr. A discussion arose between Yirgil 
(Fear gal) and Boniface (Winifred) with regard to the 
antipodes. Virgil admitted them, Boniface condemned 
the idea as heretical. Pope Zachary was appealed to. 
He judged against science for faith, f which the question 
scarcely touched ; the Saxons and the Romans tri- 
umphed ; but Ireland, though condemned, was right. 
The Saxons should have continued at the school of 
their old masters, and even Rome could have learned, 
something there. 

We have seen with what admiration Eaddroe's scien- 
tific acquirement inspired his Belgian biographer. The 
author of the Life of Chrauding pays a similar testimo- 
ny. " Chrauding,'' says he, " was versed in astronomy 
— a science much cultivated among the Irish. He had 
at first been abbot at Tholey : then leaving his nephew, 

* Vita Virgilii, (Messingham.) Ware, De Scriptoribus Hibemiae. Ca- 
nisius, Antiq. Lect. 
t This is a mistake. Hansizius, Gennania Sacra, 83. 



238 Legendary History 

Chroduin at the head of that monastery, he came and 
founded another in the forest of Argon ne, at Wasor, 
with privileges which he had obtained in person at 
Rome. There he became inclined to a solitary life, 
and built a cell at some distance from Wasor. On 
holidays he came to visit his monks. At other 
times, too, he came in the stillness of night, went 
through the monastery, examining all to correct what- 
ever might offend his severe and watchful eyes. 
Towards cockcrow, guided by Arcturus, Lucifer, or 
some other star announcing the day, he withdrew un- 
perceived, and returned to his desert. There he passed 
his life in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles ; 
there he contemplated, at leisure, that heaven whose 
brilliant mysteries he knew so well. He went further, 
says the legendary ; and while he dwelt perforce among 
men, he lived already with the angels. After toil, re- 
pose ; after action, revery ; after a laborious and prac- 
tical life, the contemplative life ; it is the genius of 
Ireland ; she bore it every way with her." 

This Irish sanctity, ascetic and studious, laborious 
and ecstatic, mingled, too, with austerity and tender- 
ness, had I know not what sympathy that quickly 
gained the heart. It naturalized itself easily, and 
churches new and old adopted it without difficulty. 
The masters and apostles from Ireland were soon hon- 
ored ; their disciples preserved their memory in venera- 
tion, and rarely left to others the care of perpetuating 
it. Their history was compiled ; they were celebrated 
in hymns. " I send you," said Balther to Notker, " some 
verses which I have composed, with music, in honor of 
St. Fridolin." * At the same time, he wrote his life, 

♦ Balther, Vita Fridolini. 



Op Ireland. 239 

which had already found more than one biographer. 
He had adopted him as his patron saint, and associated 
him in his devotions with the great St. Hilary. 

How, indeed, could men fail to love the touching and 
smiling grace which they maintained amid barbarous 
tribes, amid the toils and perils of the apostolate ? 
Livinus, lost in the marshes of the Escaut, at the mercy 
of the pagans, with a speedy death before his eyes, still 
exchanged with the nearest monasteries lovely verse.^, 
where an elegant playfulness mingles in sweet melan- 
choly with the presentiment of martyrdom. 

Impia Barbaric! gens exagitata tumxiltu 
Hie Brabanta furit, meque cruenta petit. 

Quid tibi peccavi, qui pads nuntia porto ? 
Pax est quod porto ; cur mihi bella moves ? 

Sed qua tu spiras feritas sors laeta triumphi, 

Atque dabit palmam gloria martyrii. 

Then addressing Floribert, abbot of St. Bavo : — 

Et pius ille pater cum donis mollia verba. 

Mittit et ad studium soUicitat precibus. 
Ac titulo magnum jubet insignire Bavonem ; 

Atque leves elegos esse decus tumulo. 
Nee reputat, fisso cum stridet fistula ligno, 

Quod soleat raucum reddere quassa sonum. 
Exigui rivi pauper quam vena ministrat 

Lasso vix tenues unda ministra opem. 
Sic ego, qui quondam studio florente videbar 

Esse poeta ; modo curro pedester equo. 
Et qui Castalio dicebar fonte madentem 

Dictaeo versu posse movere Lyram, 
Carmine nunc lacero dictant mihi verba Camoenae ; 

Meneque dolens Isetis apta nee est modulis. 
Non sum qui fueram festivo carmine laetus : 

Qualiter esse queam, tela cruenta videns ? * 

* Usher, Hibern. Epist. Sylloge. 



240 Legendary History 

Livinns was not mistaken : lie soon received his crown. 
Never, doubtless, did heathen earth drink in the blood 
of a gentler martyr. 

More frequently than in other nations, perhaps, were 
blended in the Irish ecclesiastical science and evangeli- 
cal sanctity, the elegance of mind, the graceful imagi- 
nation, the tender heart, the truly Christian suavity, 
that spiritual sweetness that gives such an attractive, 
absorbing, sympathetic charm to some figures in the 
legend. This affectionate and poetic attraction is one 
of the characteristics of Irish sanctity. The passionate 
impetuosity which we have noted sometimes, doubtless 
appeared, and escaped in sallies. In the history of the 
missions, as in the interior of the church, examples are 
to be found. Helias governed the monastery of St. 
Martin and St. Pantaleon, at Cologne, when he was 
informed that Peregrinus, the archbishop, deceived, 
doubtless, by the false reports of envy, was coming to 
drive the Irish and their abbot from the city. The soul 
of Helias revolted. " We are strangers," he cried, " but 
Christ is in us, and by this truth Peregrinus will never 
enter Cologne alive!" And God accomplished this 
vehement prophecy. But these violent blows which the 
Irish church had so frequently struck in the days of St. 
Patrick, had become very rare; nor was it by these 
means that it reformed Gaul, and converted Germany, 
but by unction, zeal, and charity. 

We must, moreover, acknowledge it every where, 
among the Anglo-Saxons, among the men of Gaul, which 
never was a country of sanctity, like Ireland and Eng- 
land, ecclesiastical studies softened the hardness of souls, 
polished their rudeness, and gave minds an amenity that 
contrasts singularly with the manners and language of 



Of Ireland. 241 

contemporary barbarism. Among men cultivated at 
ODce by religion and science, sweet and pious friendships 
grew up ; even afar they attracted and loved each other. 
Then it was a commerce of letters in prose and verse, 
books, prayers, fraternal sentiments, and counsels ; they 
instructed each other, discussed questions, exchanged 
volumes, dedicated new works ; the richer, too, at times 
sent aid to the poor — amiable and beneficent correspond- 
ence, of which traces remain in their prefaces and letters! 
" Verses should be sent to poets," wrote Walafrid to 
Probu? ; " to every merchant his merchandise, and to 
each one what he loves. To thee then, venerable Father, 
I send my poor poesy." Then come innocent trifling 
and expressions of esteem, and the ordinary recommen- 
dation to read, transcribe, and send back soon the pre- 
cious Fortunatus, which for him they kindly consent to 
expose all the dangers of- travel and absence. Probus 
was the Latin name of the Irish teacher at Mentz. He 
was a learned man, zealous for the eternal salvation of 
the great geniuses of antiquity. " You do not tell us," 
wrote Lupus, of Ferrieres, to Atwin,* " you do not tell 
us what Probus is doing, and I am tempted to be angry. 
Is he in the depths of some German forest, passing the 
seven arts in methodical review ? or is he not rather fin^ 
ishing his satire ? It would be pleasing to see how he 
manages to bring Virgil and Cicero into the number of 
the elect ; for in his eyes they are men of perfect virtue ; 
he does not wish, I believe, that Christ should have 
given his life in vain, or descended into hell to no pur- 
pose. And indeed does not the prophet say, * death, 
I shall be thy death ' ? " &c. 



* Epist. 20, 

21 



242 Legendaby History 

In the heart of Ireland, a letter came at times, to bear 
to the master, shut up in his school, news of the world, 
testimonials of the remembrance and solicitude of those 
who had known him, or esteemed, without personally 
knowing him. Such is Alcuin's letter to the learned 
Colga ; * he tells him that there are great troubles 
among the nations of the earth ; that Charlemagne 
makes war here and there ; he speaks to him of his 
health ; of that of Joseph, a fellow-countryman or a ser- 
vant ; and he adds, " I send thee, good father, a little 
oil, for there is little to be found in your countries.'' 
He also sends him alms in money in his own name, 
and in that of Charlemagne, " both on behalf of me, 
Alcuin, and on the part of our lord the king." The 
two portions are carefully indicated, and Alcuin's is 
pretty large. " I know not what sins," he adds, " have 
merited for me not to see for so long a time the sweet 
letters of your paternity. Yet I cannot but feel daily 
that they are very necessary for me." And he asks 
his prayers. 

We do not always find in these remote times, when 
the church was half stifled under the barbarism of na- 
tions, and even, if you will, we never find, eloquence and 
beauty of language. The style leaves much to desire ; 
taste may be often misled. The Irish were affected and 
obscure. This latter defect was almost characteristic 
among them ; there are pages and letters whose trans- 
lation we are compelled to give up, and even abandon 
all idea of disentangling their inextricable involutions. 
Such is not the style of Columbanus, Patrick, Adamnan, 
nor of the masters. What is wanting in their language 

♦ Usher, Vet. Epist." Hibern. Syllog. 



Of Ireland. 243 

is wanting in that of their contemporaries in all coun- 
tries. But instead of this learned purity and Atticism 
of words, they have the Atticism of sentiment, the deli- 
cacy of intention, often, too, the graceful thought, the 
elegant idea ; and in the less classic language which 
they employ, something of their own mild and ingenious 
mind is sure to lurk. 

We must not calumniate Erigena ; he is one of the 
glories of the middle ages ; but he must be distinguished 
from the holy masters. Erigena is not a saint ; he is not 
a legendary character, nor a figure in the Martyrology. 
During almost the whole ninth century, Ireland was a 
prey to the Danes ; nor did they cease to ravage it till 
they had planted there some peaceful and stable settle- 
ments. Many saints, masters, and bishops perished, like 
Maelcobh and Mochta ; others escaped, and among 
them Erigena. He went to France, where he spent many 
years. Then, if we believe William of Malmesbury, 
and the anonymous continuer of Bede, he went to die in 
the schools of King Alfred, assassinated by his scholars. 
But the two authors are mistaken ; Erigena's story is 
not so tragic. He lived, and probably died, in France, 
where his life was most calm.* He was one of the select 
table companions of Charles the Bald, a gay and con- 
descending prince, and sparkling jests were freely ex- 
changed across the board, if we believe some traditions, 
between the emperor and the Rabelais of the ninth cen- 
tury. Are we to take this last comparison literally? 
Perhaps so. Rabelais would not have attempted to 
write on the body and blood of Christ, on predestina- 
tion, nor even on the nature of things. He would not 

* Acta SS. 0. S. B. Saec. IV. p. H, praef. 



244 Legendary History 

have translated the Areopagite, nor studied 'how we 
see God. At least, Erigena was learned ; he willingly- 
laughed at table ; he did better, we are told. He took 
the name of Macarius ; and the choice of the pseudo- 
nyme may show a man inclined to the enjoyment of this 
world ; but Ratram pretended that Macarius did not 
express enough, and that Baccharius would have been 
more appropriate ; for the Irish scholar was drunk, he 
pretended, when he formed all his dreams. For he was 
not over-orthodox — let us note that. When his version 
of the Areopagite appeared, the pope required to see it. 
" He should have sent it to us," said he, " and submitted 
it to our approbation. He is a learned man, and much 
spoken of ; but I recollect that heretofore his doctrine 
was not pure on some articles." A great framer of 
arguments, moreover, and terrible dialectician ; skilful 
in spreading a snare, and full of exultation when his 
adversary was entrapped. When Berengarius, at a 
later day, took up the opinions of Erigena, he was 
pursued, combated without truce, struck down with 
redoubled condemnation ; retirement, expiation, the 
sanctity of his later years, obtained a reluctant pardon. 
He was less fortunate than Erigena ; more impassioned, 
doubtless, more believing, perhaps ; he had Laufranc 
against him, but no Charles the Bald for him. 

Erigena is assuredly one of the most interesting per- 
sonages of his day ; but properly speaking, he does not 
belong to it, and his portrait is strange amid the saints 
that surround him. He resembles rather some men of 
the revival, than the Irish saints of his time. He is a 
pioneer, sent on by the spirit that was afterwards to 
preside over the studies, debates, heresies, innovations, 



Op Ireland. 245 

and discoveries of lay science. Erigena, it is well 
known, was neither a priest nor a monk. 

This chapter does not contain the history of Ireland's 
science and teaching, or its masters abroad. It is not 
even sufficient to give an idea of it. Yet it is about all 
that the legend tells us on the point. We would fain 
know more. The more obscure the time, the darker 
the night, the rarer and paler are the gleams of light 
still perceptible, the more earnestly are eyes fixed on 
those gleams which are pledges and germs of the lights 
of the future, and of the great day that is to rise again. 
We follow with restless solicitude these men who guard 
and hand down the last shining torches, wavering 
though they be, and about to sink forever. We see in 
history how often light has vanished, how often it has 
been rekindled. Correctly speaking, there was not one, 
nor two, nor three, revivals after the barbarians ; but 
rather for ten centuries, for eight, especially, — from 
the sixth to the fourteenth, — we see the last lights con- 
stantly extinguishing, and ever rekindling ; disappear 
here, reappear there ; fail, and then burst out again. 
The humblest or most forgotten among the masters of 
the middle ages kept and transmitted, on their part, and 
in their turn, some sparks of the heavenly fire ; they 
have some right to our gratitude, and consequently, 
perhaps, to our interest. 
21* 



246 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

ST. COLUMBAN. 

After Honoratus and the abbots of Lerins, after St. 
Martin and St. Hilary, after Cassian's Institutes and 
Conferences, the spiritual and monastic life had always 
been, in the church of Gaul, taught by able masters and 
practised by numerous disciples.* In the beginning of 
the sixth century, the rule of St. Benedict, established 
at Glanfeuil almost as soon as at Monte Cassino itself, 
came to accelerate the development of these holy in- 
stitutions. The rules of St. Cesarius, St. Aurelian, and 
St. Ferreol raised up new associations. 

From the fifth century the Irish had mingled in this 
great movement ; but it was in the beginning of the 
seventh that immigration became more important, their 
action more distinct, their influence stronger. Then 
the Irish establishments were so multiplied, so pros- 
perous, so famous and renowned, as to enable the rule 
of Columban to dispute with that of Benedict, the 
church, and especially France ; they would perhaps 
have divided it, if the Irish had not had Rome against 
them on account of the disputes as to Easter and the 
tonsure. 

Were we writing the history of the Irish church, we 
should perhaps try to enumerate all the establishments 

♦ Fleury, Histoire Ecclesiastique. 



Op Ireland. 247 

created by her in Ireland itself; we should try to count 
those which she created in the northern countries, in 
Gaul, Italy, and Central Europe ; we should have to 
recount at length (for it would be a long chapter) the 
monasteries constructed by Columbanus, the disciples 
formed by him, and the houses which they founded in 
their turn ; his difficulties with bishops, his negotiations 
with synods, his observations addressed to popes ; his 
struggles against princes ; the causes, pretexts, and 
hardship of his proscription. We should have to ex- 
amine his rule, compare it with that of St. Benedict, 
seek whether one was substituted for the other, or 
whether they were naturally founded insensibly together, 
and at what epoch the Irish legislator's name was effaced 
from the codes that ruled continental monasticism. 
What we have to say is less long and less difficult. We 
consult only the legends, and what we borrow will per- 
haps suffice to give an idea of the labors of Columban, 
and of the spirit that Ireland bore in the mission which 
she accomplished among Christian nations, and in the 
very bosom of the church. 

The genius of Ireland was multiform and diverse. If 
it had the sentiment of prayer, taste for poetic narra- 
tive, the enthusiasm of mysticism, and the spirit of 
vision, it had also the sense of rule, and that firmness 
of conception and maaagement which creates, organizes, 
and preserves. It produced not only ascetics, poets, 
and visionaries, but also founders. The former repre- 
sented it in the ideal or marvellous regions of the le- 
gend ; it is the last, and above all the rest St. Columban, 
that represent it in liistory. 

Taking the word legend in the mystic and poetic 
meaning, Columban is not a legendary personage. His 



248 Legendaey History 

name, doubtless, is an emblem ; it is that of the saint of 
lona ; but Columban himself in vain recalls the sweet 
symbol ; he was not the dove of the cloisters. He was 
too vehement to be so tender, too agitated to be so recol- 
lected, too tried to be so radiant. His genius, like his 
mission, was different. Had he remained in Ireland, we 
should perhaps now see him in the floating atmosphere, 
the golden, half-transparent light, in which legendary 
Ireland is enveloped with her saints ; ecstasies and nxir- 
acles would have filled his life or his biographer's narra- 
tive ; but Gaul, at that time, did not resemble Ireland ; 
it was the centre of movement and life for new nations. 
There men Avere in the heart of Europe ; they lived in 
the broad light of day, they belonged to history ; and 
history was already drawing up annals which were not 
legends, and works that were more than legends. Brune- 
hilde, the French kings, the Austrasian and Neustrian 
kudes, are dramatic figures perhaps, but unquestionably 
not legendary. Columban is then, above all, by his 
works, by the very narrative of his biographer, as by his 
character and genius, an historic personage. 

It was in Leinster that he was born and spent his 
early years; but he soon left his country. A venerable 
old man, Selen, was his first master ; thence he passed 
under the discipline of Comgall at Banchor. There he 
remained for long years, and wheTi he wished to set out, 
the separation was painful ; it was hard for the venera- 
ble Comgall, says Jonas, to renounce such company, to 
deprive himself of such a consolation. 

He set out with twelve companions ; he landed in 
Arraorica, and thence penetrated ifito Gaul.* On ac- 

* Jonas, Vita Columbani. 



Op Ireland. 249 

count of the frequent wars, says Jonas, of the continual 
passage of enemies, or perhaps also by the negligence 
of bishops, religion seemed to have lost all its force and 
virtue there. A vast career opened before him. He 
could choose and mark his work. He might, like Clem- 
ent, Albinus, and Dungal, at a later date, labor for the 
diffusion of science ; he might teach the laws of the 
monastic life such as he knew it to be practised in Ire- 
land ; he might, finally, crossing the Rhine and follow- 
ing the footprints of Rupert, go and bear the gospel 
amid pagan tribes. Instead of choosing one of these 
three missions, he undertook all of them ; he was at 
once doctor, reformer, founder, and apostle ; he taught 
the whole church by his word and his writings ; reformed 
the cloisters by promulgating and establishing his rule ; 
and finally he evangelized the Suevi ; and had not God 
called him to himself, would have extended his aposto- 
late to the Sclavonians. 

He crossed the land of the Gauls from west to east, 
on foot, bearing on his shoulders the volume of the Holy 
Scriptures, meditating in himself or discoursing with 
his companions. He stopped amid the Vosges. There 
spread wide deserts, the lair of wolves, the refuge of 
robbers ; the cave of a bear was his first shelter ; before 
founding his edifice he once more wrought it in his mind. 
Then suddenly, amid that savage desert, amid the wild 
beasts and fierce men, rose Coluniban's work, a holy 
city, governed by a new legislation. 

The legislation was severe ; he commanded difiicult 
things, and he wished to be obeyed. " Obedience is the 
commencement and the end of the monk. The disciple 
of Christ who is truly obedient refuses nothing, hard or 
painful as may be the order given. He obeys with 



250 Legendary History 

ardor, with joy. And how far does his obedience 
go ? Till death ; for Christ obeyed his Father even 
unto death."* 

" The monk lives under the discipline of his Father, 
and has but one Father ; but he has companions, in order 
to learn of one humility, of another patience, of another 
silence, of another meekness. It is an exchange of les- 
sons and examples, a mutual school, where all teach one 
another all virtues, that each may attain perfection."! 

" The monk does not do what he will, but what he 
is bidden, takes what is given him, fulfils his tasks, 
submits to what he would not. He is broken before he 
gains his couch, he sleeps as he walks, he does not finish 
his sleep, he is awakened and he must rise. He is ill- 
treated and is silent. He fears his superior as a master, 
he loves him as a father ; he believes that whatsoever is 
commanded him tends to his salvation, and he judges 
not the orders of those who are more than he ; for his 
duty is to obey. Did not Moses say. Hear, Israel, 
and be silent " ? J 

The monk had nothing then as his own, not even his 
judgment and his will. He belonged totally to his 
monastery and his superior ; he belonged to them even 
after death. *' The monk," said the Irish synod,§ " under 
the abbot's orders, has no liberty during life ; still less 
in death." His very body was the property of the 
monastery. 

If the law was exacting, the penalty was no less 
rigorous. 

Indefinite recitations of prayers and psalms,|| public 



* St. Columban, Reg. Monast. f Id. + Id. 

§ Capit. Select. (Spicel Dacher.) || St. Columban, Reg. Coenob. 



Op Ireland. 251 

reprimands, acts of reparation in church, bread and water, 
sequestration, the discipline or the rod, redoubled fast- 
ings, chains, — such were the numerous energetic means 
in use at Luxeuil and elsewhere. The hardest are not 
the least employed. "For not responding Amen to 
grace at table with the rest, six blows ; " for giving an 
excuse, even simply, and not saying at once, " It is my 
fault ; I repent," fifty blows ; for opposing his own 
advice, however simply, to his superior's, the monk was 
to receive fifty blows ; for forgetting till office time to 
make the offering, a hundred blows ; for leaving the 
enclosure of the monastery without permission, redoubled 
fasts and chains. Such a regime could suit only saints. 

The material order was maintained as exactly as the 
spiritual and moral order. If, through forgetfulness, 
negligence, or any other cause,* any provisions, liquid or 
solid, were lost or spoiled, the guilty during twelve psalms, 
prostrate motionless in the church, without stiring a limb, 
says the rule, must humble himself and do penance. 
This was not a mere lesson of economy ; it was especially 
a lesson of poverty : poverty is avaricious ; it is lavish 
only in alms. 

And we must aver it too, cloisters were not the sem- 
inaries of monks only ; they were the schools of the 
people. There were practised humility, obedience, pov- 
erty, austerity ; the spectacle of these virtues must have 
been strange for barbarians fresh from the forests of 
Germany, with all the passions of their former life, all 
the concupiscences of their new life, the passion of lib- 
erty and pride, the concupiscence of pleasure and riches. 
Bat the spectacle of monastic virtues, strange at first, 

♦ St. Columban, Reg. Coenob. 



252 Legendary History 

after striking, instructed them ; it prepared them for 
ideas of order, moderation, government. The lessons 
and rigors of the rule, profitable directly for the sanc- 
titicationof a few, profited indirectly society in its 
fullest extent. 

This was the code of the cloister, the interior law ; 
these were the virtues of the monks. Neither this law 
nor these virtues satisfied the leaders. Bound to con- 
duct these men, who had given themselves to them body 
and soul, they had all the cares of material administra- 
tion and spiritual government. But the monasteries 
were little states, little societies, amid the nations and 
greater political societies ; they had to defend and main- 
tain their existence, to protect their interests ; they met 
enemies, and needed allies ; they had to baffle cunning, 
and struggle with force ; an administration, an exter- 
nal policy, thus devolved on the heads of monasteries. 
The monastery, in fine, was not only a retreat to which 
men retired to labor in solitude to save their souls ; 
if it was a cloister, it was a church ; it was not enough 
that it exhaled an odor of virtue ; it was necessary that 
voice should issue from its walls to teach justice and 
charity. The monks were an army ; the monasteries 
were like fortified camps, where Christianity planted 
her legions, as Rome had done of old her veterans, to 
occupy more completely province after province. Every 
monastery acted in a circle, of which it was the centre, 
and labored to extend, consolidate, or maintain the in- 
fluence of the gospel and the church ; for the church, 
in the first ages, carried on at once a war of conquest 
without, a work of civilization within ; it labored at the 
same time to convert barbarous paganism and to or- 
ganize Christian barbarism. Now, on the abbots, too, 



Op Ireland. • 253 

devolved the employment of the forces and the direction 
of movements. 

Better than any other could Columban understand 
and tell what means and resources, what qualities and 
virtues, were needed, to carry such a task to an end ; 
and he says it in the firm, concise, decisive language 
that Patrick sometimes spoke, and that we meet also 
in the canons of the Irish synods.* " Let him," he says, 
speaking of that monastic leader whose difficult mission 
we have just depicted, — "let him be devoted in the state 
of humility, indulgent in the state of authority ; simple 
in faith, profound in morals ; tenacious for the interests of 
others, easy for his own ; candid in friendship, penetrat- 
ing in snares ; harsh against effeminacy, tender against 
harshness ; changing in necessary matters, but invariable 
in the truth ; severe in prosperity, sweet in bitterness ; 
strong in tribulation, weak in disputes ; slow to anger, 
ready to be instructed ; slow to speak, quick to hear ; 
active in well doing, inert for punishment ; prudent in 
word, prompt in deed ; amiable to the good, harsh to 
the wicked ; clement to the weak, pitiless to the per- 
verse ; high before him who humbles himself, audacious 
in the cause of truth." In this antithetic formula, if 
some terms seem of doubtful clearness or accuracy, we 
must say that the translation is literal, and that, withal, 
conciseness and antithesis may sometimes be dangerous. 
Such formulas, moreover, need comment or meditation. 
But it is enough to read them to discover there the 
science of a master of the spiritual life, the genius of a 
monastic legislator, and the character of the man who 
struggled unbendingly against Theuderic and Brunehilde. 

* St. Columban, Sermon xiv. 

22 



254 ' Legendary History 

St. Columban had planted himself in the Vosges ; he 
was there on the borders of the Frank and Burgundian 
territories, within reach of idolatrous Switzerland, near 
the princes of Austrasia. Anegray, Luxeuil, Fontaines, 
were rapidly built and peopled. There were strictly 
observed the rule of the rigid founder and the Irish 
traditions. There Easter was celebrated, according to 
St. Jerome ; there a strict cloister was observed ; not 
a laic, leud, prince, or king crossed the sacred barrier ; 
and out of sight of the profane, aloof from their contact, 
the companions of Columban might think themselves in 
Ireland. " We are in Ireland here," proudly wrote the 
saint to Pope Boniface ; "we borrow nought from the 
rules of these Gauls.* Tranquil in our desert, we 
trouble no man, and we abide by the rules of our 
masters." Yet it was difficult for this little island 
to establish itself in France, isolated even amid its 
deserts, like an isle in the midst of the ocean ; and 
Columban had no thoughts of being forgotten. He 
soon troubled the church in the Gauls; above all, .he 
troubled Theuderic and Brunehilde. 

When not living in the license of polygamy, the 
Merovingians lived in the disorders of concubinage. 
Brunehilde, that second Jezebel, as Jonas calls her, 
fomented and encouraged the debaucheries of her grand- 
son, t St. Columban raised his voice, repulsed the 
children born of adultery when presented for his bene- 
diction, and declared that never should that race sprung 
from evil spots ascend the throne. The children retired, 
but Brunehilde had her vengeance ; the neighborhood 
was forbidden all intercourse with the monastery ; 

* Columban, Epist. i. f Fredeg., Chronicon. Vita Colvixnbae. 



Op Ireland. 255 

they were forbidden to let any one pass from it ; Lux- 
euil was shut up in a circle wliere it must soon stifle. 
Yet Columban came forth ; who would dare arrest his 
path? and when he drew nigh the royal abode, Theu- 
deric's self paled. " Better," he exclaimed, " honor the 
man of God than provoke his wrath and that of the 
Lord." And as the saint would not shelter his head 
beneath the prince's roof, he had a table set without as 
if for himself. Columban cursed these presents. " The 
Most High," he cried with indignation, " rejects the gifts 
of the wicked." His malediction overthrew the prince's 
tables, the vessels flew into fragments, the wine and the 
viands were scattered on the ground. Theud eric's re- 
tainers fled in terror and dismay. Theuderic himself 
and Brunehilde came to humble their brows before him, 
ask pardon, and promise. 

The promises were soon forgotten ; and soon too came 
from Luxeuil letters the words of which were like rods. 
But this time, Brunehilde, too deeply wounded, would not 
yield ; in her turn she sought new arms ; and bishops, 
courtly bishops, as Jonas says, furnished her with them. 
The king came in person to Luxeuil to complain that 
the customs of the country were not followed, that the 
house was closed to Christian men, and to declare that 
Columban must, like others, open his monastery, or forego 
the royal protection. And at the same time he entered 
by violence, and was already in the refectory of the 
monks. " Thou hast come," said Columban, " to destroy 
the holy cloisters and sully regular discipline. Mark it 
— thy realm shall be ruined from top to bottom, and thou 
shalt perish, thou and all thy line." Theuderic recoiled. 
*' Thou hopest," he at last replied to the saint, who pur- 
sued him with words of fire, — " thou hopest to win from 



256 Legendaey History 

me the martyr's crown. I am not so mad ; I will not 
stain my soul with so great a crime. But know that 
he who has come here to defy all our customs may 
think of returning whence he came." 

Yet it was only a temporary banishment.. Baudulf 
was appointed to lead him to his place of exile ; it was 
southward in the mountains. But his guardians did not 
guard him ; they saw the power of God manifest in him, 
and they feared to share in the crime of his persecutors. 
One day Columban ascended the mountain top, waited 
to see whether any one would stop him in his way, and 
at noon he descended towards the Doubs, traversed the 
city with his companions, and reentered his monastery. 

This audacity seemed great; Baudulf and Berther 
received orders to take the Irishman and lead him this 
time, not to Bcsan9on, but to the sea shore, and put him 
in a vessel for Ireland. When they arrived, Columban 
was in the church amid his brethren, chanting, praying. 
To the orders communicated to him he replied simply, 
" I do not believe that God wishes me to return to the 
place of my birth, which I have once left for the love of 
Christ." It was necessary to employ force. Baudulf 
and Berther had not the courage ; they departed, leaving 
it to the hands of some of their most resolute men. 

These, too, lost heart, when left alone and the moment 
of action came. They lamented over the orders which 
they were condemned to execute ; they asked tlie saint's 
pardon, and besought him to obey, as their lives were at 
stake. He repeated that he would yield only to vio- 
lence. At last, say Jonas and Fredegarus, feeling equal 
danger, equal terror, on both sides, some touched the 
side of his robe, others fell at his feet ; and the saint, 
seeing the evils that his inflexibility might produce, left 



Of Ireland. 257 

his monastery. He left it full of tears, sobs, and cries 
of despair. All would have followed hira, but he was 
permitted to take with him only those from Brittany 
and Ireland. " Remain here in peace," he said to the 
rest ; " the Lord will soon avenge your sorrows."* 

It was a sad journey, and full of bitterness. Near 
Avalon one of Theuderic's men would have slain him. 
At Nevers, Lua was brutally beaten. " God will punish 
thee," said Columban ; " thee that smitest the blessed 
members of Christ." At Orleans they had no bread; 
two cf the brethren went through the town, but came 
back empty-handed, so great was the fear of the king's 
wrath, when a woman, a foreigner like themselves, 
begged them to enter her house, and gave them all they 
needed. She was from a distant land, from Syria ; her 
husband was blind, and for many years, she said, she led 
him from one country to another. Columban's prayer 
opened his eyes. As they passed through Tours, it is 
painful indeed for the exiles to pass there before St. 
Martin without being permitted to pray even a moment 
at his tomb. Theuderic had given orders that they 
should not enter a church. But God wished to give his 
servants that sweet consolation ; in spite of boatmen, in 
spite of soldiers, the boat went straight to port, and 
stopped there. They had reached Nantes. Ragmund 
sought a vessel ; Irish merchants were found homeward 
bound ; they took Columban's baggage on board, and 
it was settled that he should embark at the mouth of the 
river. If God wished the saint to remain in France, it 
was the titfie for his interposition. 

Columban suffered cruelly. 

* Jonas, Vita Columbam. 

22* 



258 Legendary History 

Under this firm will beat a tender heart, and had the 
trial been prolonged, though the will would have re- 
mained inflexible, the heart would have broken. His 
first feeling had been indignation and wrath ; he gave 
utterance to them in terms that alarmed all who heard 
them. " That dog Theuderic drives me from amidst 
my brethren." * " Better," replied Chagnoald, " better 
drink milk than wormwood." This Chagnoald served 
Theuderic, and his wife was a kinswoman of King Theu- 
debert ; he wished to retain the friendship of both. 
" As thou art a friend of Theuderic's," replied the saint, 
" thou canst go on my behalf to announce him these 
things that will fill his heart with joy. It is, that before 
three years, he and his sons shall be extirpated from 
the earth." At the same time he foretold to Ragmund 
that King Clother, whom they now despised, would 
before three years be their master. But as they drew 
nigh their journey's end, his inmost soul was troubled, 
and from Nantes he addressed his brethren a letter full 
of grief repressed and welling tears kept back. "I 
have wished," he said, " to visit the nations, and bear 
the gospel to them ; but in return they have given me 
gall in my thirst, and my soul is almost annihilated. . . 
Fain I would write to thee, [he is speaking to AttalaJ m 
which I would put all my tears ; but as I know thy 
heart, I have adopted another language ; I have spoken 
only of necessary things ; they, too, are sad enough ; I 
would not provoke tears ; I would keep them back ; and 
lo ! even now my tears escape. Yet it is better to repress 
them to their source : the soldier weeps not in war." f 

He wrote, too, when they came to tell him that the 

* Jonas, Vita Columbani. t St. Columban, Epis. vol. iii. 



Op Ireland. 259 

vessel was ready. " Pray for me," he exclaims to his 
brethren, " pray for me." * . . . To regain Luxeuil, 
he would have crossed the abysses ; he recalled to mind 
the Hebrew prophet whose name he bore. " If they 
cast me into the sea, pray that I too may be borne 
through the waters, and restored to your beloved land." 
At the same time, he gave them his last instructions. 
" If my absence is prolonged more than it was before, 
if Attala is not capable of governing you, you know 
that you have brethren in these parts, in the neighbor- 
hood of the Bretons. [His disciple, Potemten, had 
founded a monastery in the neighborhood of Cou- 
tances.] Assemble in the spot that seems the best, 
and let him direct you whom all shall choose. If the 
spot please you, and God's hand build there with you, 
may you there increase and multiply by thousands and 
by thousands of thousands ! " 

Yet even in that hour he did not despair ; on the 
contrary, his hopes revived. It was never without a 
secret trouble, without a religious terror, that men 
touched the anointed of Christ, those who seemed to 
bear in their persons the glorious mark of a divine con- 
secration. As long as their course lay through their 
own monarch's dominions, as long as they were in 
France, under the eye of the lends and counts, Theude- 
ric's servants had done their duty ; they had even done 
it brutally at times, as it was in their nature to do. 
But when they reached Nantes, near the Bretons, in face 
of the sea, at the extremity of the world, they looked 
around them ; no longer (so to speak) did any one see 
them ; they gave length to the chain ; f they lagged 

♦ St. Columban, Ep. iii. t Id., ad finem. 



260 Legendary History 

behind, gradually getting to a distance from their pris- 
oners, as if in hopes that they would escape. God, on 
the other hand, manifested his will ; thrice did the ves- 
sel chosen to bear off Columban essay to leave ; thrice 
did the sea roll it back to the shore. Count Theudoald 
shrunk from obstinately opposing God's will. Colum- 
ban soon perceived that he was free. 

Not only was he free, but all were at his feet ; * to 
the dignity and authority of sanctity was now added 
the glory of having been a confessor of Christ. Lux- 
euil and the states of Theuderic were barred against 
him, but the rest of France lay open. He first pro- 
ceeded to the court of Clother, king of the Northern 
Austrasians. Clother had learned of his sufferings ; he 
had sympathized with him, and was now overjoyed to 
welcome the confessor to his dominions. An alliance 
already existed between them ; this alliance was sealed ; 
it was advantageous to both. Columban was honored, 
protected, recommended ; in return, he labored for the 
prince's salvation ; for it is rare, as Jonas admits with 
a quaint indulgence not to find something to reprove in 
the court of kings. Moreover, he directed his political 
movements. Theuderic and Theudebert made war on 
each other, each claiming various provinces, and each 
called Clother to his aid. " Let them tear each other," 
said Columban ; " in less than three years the kingdom 
shall be thine." His prediction was accomplished. 
Columban sat in the deep forest, on the trunk of a fallen 
oak, reading the Scriptures, when the two kings met at 
Tolbiac ; he beheld the battle in spirit, and as Chag- 
noald asked him to pray that Theudebert might over- 

♦ Jonas, Vita CJolumbaoi. 



Op Ireland. 261 

come Theuderic, "It is thus that Christ in his com- 
mandment bids us pray for our enemies. As to the two 
kings, the equitable Judge at this instant pronounces 
their sentence." Theuderic had persecuted him, Theu- 
debert had not defended him ; both were severely pun- 
ished. The saint showed gratitude and vengeance in 
the Irish way. 

And yet it was not Theuderic and Brunchilde, nor 
the scenes of Luxeuil, nor the shame and outrages of 
being dragged a captive across all France, nor the 
heart-breaking preparations for the journey, and the last 
farewell ; it was not the brutal wrath of the princes, 
that had most deeply wounded his heart ; * but rather 
the treason, the hostility, the indifference, or the cow- 
ardice of the bishops. Court bishops had delivered 
him up ; not one among all who then held the sees of 
France rose to protest against this iniquitous violence. 
The Bishop of Langres tore from him Eustace, one of 
his most loved disciples ; Sophronius of Nantes seemed 
to have shown as much zeal as Count Theudoald did in 
fulfilling the king's orders. Leupar of Tours admitted 
him to his table, and supplied him with necessaries for 
the journey — tepid charity, timid zeal! Well do we 
discern the Merovingian bishops, whose sad and often 
scandalous history we find in the pages of Gregory of 
Tours. It was already that church of the seventh cen- 
tury, of which Fleury admits " that it was greatly re- 
laxed ; that for eighty years, there were scarcely any 
councils, and that the archbishops feebly maintained 
discipline." What would the Irish church have said ? 
What would men have said in Ireland, where the epis- 

♦ Fredegond, Chron. Jonas, Vita Columbani. 



262 Legendary History 

copacy was so strong, the monastic habit so inviolable, 
and sanctity so sacred ? 

This universal silence, this universal abandonment, 
had nevertheless other causes than the weakness and 
un worthiness of bishops. Columban came from Ireland, 
from the Irish schools, bringing their rules and tradi- 
tions, in which he intended neither to suppress nor to 
change aught. He seemed to bear Ireland with him, 
and wherever he stopped, wherever he traced an en- 
closure, or consecrated a church, he pretended that that 
enclosure should become an Ireland, that church an 
Irish church. In this proud pretension there was some- 
thing touching too, withal. But it was not easy to ad- 
mit it, or prevent its offending the foreign churches, 
which, offering hospitality to him, wished him to con- 
sider himself at home among them, and conform to their 
custom. Their susceptibility might be natural and 
legitimate. But setting aside the question of selflove, 
there remained a graver question — that of unity. 

There must be unity in one country, and one church ; 
it was not probable nor good that France should per- 
mit herself to be treated like a wild land, where the first 
occupant could settle as a master ; where foreign na- 
tionalities and foreign discipline might freely found here 
and there their independent colonies. The order and 
nationality of the church would have disappeared in 
these anarchical or bizarre republics. Now Irish disci- 
pline was separated from French discipline by consider- 
able essential differences. To save unity at least, 
France had to become Irish, if Ireland would not be- 
come French. 

The division was manifested especially in three princi- 
pal points — the cloister of the monks, the tonsure, and 



Of Ireland. 263 

the time of celebrating Easter. Oq the first question, 
Coiuinban had to struggle simply with the Gauls. His 
cloister was, they said, too severe, strange even, and 
shameful for the church that dared to rear it. It should 
have imitated in silence. The second question must have 
been grave, if we consider the discussions wherewith it 
tilled Ireland, England, and, through them, all Cliristen- 
dom. According to the Saxon Ceolfred, the question 
was to choose between the custom of Job, Joseph, and 
St. Peter,* and the usage of Simon the magician. In 
these terms the solution is not doubtful. It seems, 
moreover, though facts are not over clear, and texts con- 
tradictory, that Patrick, and after him the synods,t must 
have proscribed the tonsure from ear to ear, and that in 
Ireland itself they were the dissidents who did not wear 
it as a crown. In fine, we do not see in Columban's 
life that he provoked or maintained the least discussion 
on this point. For the honor of the Gallo-Frankish 
church, we must then set aside the first point; the sec- 
ond has left no traces here ; on the third, the struggle 
was a grave one for the whole church, for Columban 
laborious and painful. 

Without pretending to appreciate all the importance 
of the debate, we may premise that it becomes a reli- 
gion to fix in a precise manner the date of its great 
feasts, and to wish the same date observed throughout 
its empire. These feasts are solemn manifestations of a 
belief; it is proper that there should be a completeness 
in the manifestation, as" there is unity in belief. Now, 
Rome had decided, or rather Latin tradition had natu- 
rally prevailed over Greek, and since the days of St. 

* Epist. ad Naitan, in Bede. 

t Usher, Catalog. SS. Hib. Capit. Select. Spicilegium Dackerii, 



264 Legendary History 

Poljcarp, and especially the council of Nice, the Holy 
See had authorized and tolerated no dissidence. Col- 
umban had to meet, then, not merely the bishops of the 
Gauls, he had to convince and bring back Rome itself. 
A difficult task, and yet at first he attempted it. He 
conferred in Gaul with Candid, a Roman priest ; then, 
in a letter addressed to Gregory the Great, he' urged 
him to establish unity by receiving the Irish computa- 
tion.* To Victorias and the Galileans, who have dug 
up and obscured the Easter, he opposes the tradition 
derived from the East, and the science of the Irish mas- 
ters ; he relies on Anatolius, St. Jerome, Eusebius of 
Ca3sarea. His argument is remarkably free, and singu- 
larly lively. " How canst thou," he cries, " thou, whose 
genius and intellect fills the world, celebrate this ob- 
scure Pasch ? How is it that thou hast not long since 
swept away this error, with which the Gauls have em- 
barrassed the church? Dost thou fear to be accused of 
innovation? to reverse what Leo has done? A living 
saint may correct what another, and even greater, saint 
had not corrected before him. Have regard to the 
weak ; show not the scandal of diversity. For my 
part, I avow plainly that whoever goes against the au- 
thority of St. Jerome will be rejected as a heretic by 
the western churches." We might say that he menaces, 
or at least excites fears of a schism. This letter, we 
are told, by some unknown accident never reached St. 
Gregory. 

But Columban soon felt that lie was not able to carry 
Rome and the church with him. In the letters which he 
subsequently addressed to the pope, to synods, to bish- 

• St Columban, Ep. V. 



Op Ireland. 265 

ops, he still argues, but in defence, in excuse ; lie seems 
to have given up all idea of convincing. It is no longer 
argument that prevails, but prayer. He no longer wishes 
to reform foreign churches ; he intrenches himself in his 
monastery ; he declares that there he is in Ireland, and 
asks to be permitted to follow the custom of his country, 
the rule of his fathers and masters. His request was 
humble and touching.* "I am not," he says, "the 
author of this diversity, and as I have come into this 
country for Christ, our common Lord and Saviour, I 
pray and conjure you in his name to permit us to live 
in peace and charity with you, in the depths of these 
forests, and to end our lives in silence by the bones of 
our seventeen brethren who have died here, — end them 
as we have led them these last twelve years, — that we 
may continue to pray for you as we should, and as we have 
hitherto done. Let us abide together in Gaul as we 
shall abide together in heaven. See," he added, " what 
you have to do for poor strangers, grown old in God^s 
service ; it seems to me that it will be better for you to 
comfort than to molest us." His request was rejected. 
He carried it before Pope Boniface ; t and soon after 
the wrath of Theuderic and Brunehilde was enkindled 
against him. 

The part of the French clergy, their attitude in perils 
to which Columban was exposed and the trials to which 
he was subjected, can surely not be justified ; they are 
perhaps explained. 

We may explain, too, how Columban, when he was 
free, did not remain in France. We may explain how, 
when Theuderic had perished wretchedly, wheji Brune- 

* Columban, Ep. ii, f Id. Ep. i, 

28 



266 Legendary History 

hilde had come to her cruel and shameful end, when their 
children had disappeared fom the earth, when Columban 
was free to see once more his beloved houses of Ana- 
grate, Luxeuil, and Fontaines, he still would not return 
to France. Clother, master of all the Frankish king- 
doms, at the pinnacle of that power and fortune which 
Columban had predicted and prepared,* sent Eustace 
in search of his master, urging him to follow up every 
tmce, and find him wherever he might be. Eustace 
found him in Italy, in his monastery of Bobbio ; and he 
delivered the prince's message, begging the saint to 
return and console his brethren in Burgundy. But 
Columban refused ; he remained in his Italian monas- 
tery, recommending Luxeuil to King Clother. He had 
adopted France ; he had loved it ; he had labored for 
its salvation. In return, as he said at Nantes, it had 
sated him with gall ; when he left it, he resolved to see 
it no more, and eternal was the farewell that his too 
painfully wounded soul addressed it. 

He went his way with St. Gall and some others ; he 
entered the Alps, evangelized their still pagan moun- 
taineers, kid in their midst the germ of monastic science 
and sanctity, in the great monastery which bore his 
disciple's name ; then, as he marched towards the Scla- 
vonian tribes, he was turned aside by the Lord, and 
bending his way southward, descended to Lombardy. 
It was, moreover, at that moment that the victory of 
Tolbiac gave for a moment to the hands of Theuderic 
the states of Theudebert, and Columban was forced 
to depart. 

The Lombard King Agilulf received him with great 

• Jonas, Vita ColumbanL 



Op Ireland. 267 

joy. Between Trebbia and Bobbio, at the foot of the 
mountains, were a forsaken village and a church once 
dedicated to St. Peter. There Columban halted, there 
he built a monastery; and thence he soon took, in all 
that passed in the church of those parts, an active and 
important part. For if France had broken his heart, it 
had not broken the vigor of his firm and active mind. 
The Arians troubled the Lombard country, and disturbed 
the faith of the people ; Columban met them, and wrote a 
book against them.* Nestorian quarrels were revived ; 
there was a schism on the matter of the three chapters ; 
Pope Boniface was suspected, and even accused, of her- 
esy, and Columban undertook to write to him. We 
cannot be expected to enter into this history. It con- 
cerns us only to mark the high rank which the Irish 
saint assumed on his arrival, and the imposing figure 
which he forms amid the ultramontane churches, and in 
the very face of Rome. Moreover, he lived there only 
a few years. Bobbio, which had gathered up and re- 
vived in the repose of its hospitable solitude his wander- 
ing life and ulcerated soul, guarded his ashes, and honored 
them too most piously — a precious legacy, of which 
France deserved to be deprived. The monastery grew 
and prospered under the immortal benediction of its 
founder. In the last century it still existed. One would 
wish to know that it ever lives. 

To that France which had shown such harshness, he 
left pledges however ; he left .it disciples, living works 
of his science and zeal.t Eustace of Luxeuil, Agil, 
Babolen, Faro of Melun, Audemer of Boulogne, Filbert 
of Jumieges, Chagnoald of Laon, Achar of Tournay, 

* Liber contra Arianos. f Jonas, Vita Columbani. Ordericus. 



« 



268 Legendary History 

Eagnacaire of Bale, came forth from his school. Ado 
and St. Ouen had been blessed by him ; many other 
bishops or abbots owed their virtue and learning to his 
lessons and example. By his rule, his foundations, his 
disciples, he exercised, therefore, a wide-spread and salu- 
tary influence ; he took a considerable part, and a deci- 
sive one, in the monastic movement of the seventh 
century ; and the whole church profited by that severe 
discipline for which the master had to suffer so bitter 
a persecution. 

Such was St. Columban ; such was his life ; these 
were the labors and fruits of his mission. Jonas has 
related but the history of a man ; but in that history of 
an individual we may see or catch glimpses of several. 
Many were the masters whom Ireland sent to propagate 
in the countries of the continent, if not the disputable 
traditions of her church, at least the sanctity of her 
discipline and the ardor of her spirit. Among them 
Columban was but the greatest and most sorely tried. 



Of Ireland. 269 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE miSH MISSIONARIES. 

When the Christian religion, by the voice of St. 
Patrick, called Ireland, Ireland, as though she felt that 
her time had come, and the work awaited her, awoke 
abruptly, and ardently embraced the toil. In an instant 
she became Christian ; she seems to have been so be- 
forehand, to have borne the faith within her, needing 
but a ray of light to reveal what was already in her 
soul. Patrick had, only to open the gospel before her 
eyes, she understood it ; he had only to stretch out his 
hand towards foreign lands, and the missionary instinct 
was energetically manifested in her. Not for herself 
alone, we have said already, not for herself alone was 
Ireland to be converted, but especially for others. 
Hence she sent forth pilgrims, whose faith and zeal 
revived faith and zeal wherever they passed ; studious 
travellers, whose example exhorted to holy studies • 
learned masters, whose erudition contributed to main- 
tain or revive pale or expiring lights ; reformers, 
who purified the morals of the church and withstood 
the spread of barbarous manners. Nor was this all. 
What was asked of Ireland was, apostles to evangelize 
pagan nations. 

On two occasions Patrick convoked his people in 
solemn assemblies. There grave questions were de- 
bated, the general interests of the church regulated; 
23 ^^ 



270 Legendary History 

we might call them the comitia of Christian Ireland, 
a sort of popular council. There, especially, Patrick 
loved to open his heart to his people, and communi- 
cated his thoughts to them. What words did he ut- 
ter there? We know not; but Ireland was agitated 
as though he had preached a crusade, and the whole 
assembly had cried out, God wills it ! Adventurous 
spirits, ardent characters, firm hearts, tried sanctity, 
all the strong men and stronger women rallied, asso- 
ciated, groups united, assemblies were formed, armies 
concentrated on different parts of the coast ; tlrey seemed 
preparing to set out to conquer or colonize a world. 
After the second assembly, says the Chronicle of St. 
Peter's of Ratisbonne, thirty thousand men of tried 
sanctity and justice left their country together. With 
the permission and blessing of St. Patrick, they left 
their fatherland, acquaintances, friends, kindred, prop- 
erty, their castles, cities, all that they possessed ; and 
inflamed with the divine love, they followed Christ, 
clad in goat skins, in a voluntary poverty. Safely did 
this multitude of saints pass through the dangers of the 
sea ; and then they divided into three troops, which 
proceeded to the three parts of the world, Europe, 
Africa, and Asia. 

Such is the later account of the Germanic legend ; 
and it shows how powerfully foreign nations had been 
struck by the expansive and inexhaustible fecundity 
that poured unceasingly among them countless colonies 
of missionaries. 

If, with Colgan, we consider the group of missions 
sent forth from Ireland between the fifth and eleventh 
centuries, we find twelve especially, counting as the first 
that which Patrick led in person to Ireland, and which 



Op Ireland. 271 

won to the gospel the Isle of Saints. The heads of 
these missions were Rioch, Rupert, Finnian, Columbkill, 
Barry, Mardoc, Colman, Columban, Eloch, Switbert, or 
rather Willbrord, Forannan. Each of these twelve led 
forth with him twelve companions — a sacred number, 
a blessed number, which Ireland, in pious imitation, had 
borrowed from Christ and his apostles. Nor is the list 
complete ; to it we must add at least those who bore 
the gospel to Ireland and the apostles of Northern Ger- 
many. To the organized and regular missions we must 
add, especially, the unknown array of isolated pioneers, 
independent voyagers, free missionaries, who went on 
every side among Christians or among idolaters, and 
all who rallied to devote themselves obscurely to the 
work undertaken by the masters. Here and there their 
traces, sometimes even their names, are accidentally 
found in the Acts. Who would, who could count them ? 
All neophytes are apostles ; the soul cannot be 
strongly influenced by a new truth, without seeking 
to diffuse it ; and surely that is the most ardent of 
zeals which religion enkindles in man's heart. It was 
natural, then, that the mission spirit, deadened in the 
older Christians, should ferment in the bosom of Ire- 
land's young Christianity. But all men, all nations, are 
not equally predestined and predisposed to a work ever 
so arduous in itself. A strong faith, a lively charity, 
and the firmest hope mayhap suffice not ; these are but 
the religious qualities, the divine parts, so to speak, of 
the apostle ; something else is needed. In the mission 
.spirit there is not merely the sentiment of charity, but 
often, too, the instinct of adventure : if faith makes mis- 
sionaries, imagination does likewise ; and to produce a 
useful propaganda, certain human qualities of mind and 



272 Legendary History 

character may be tlie indispensable auxiliaries of the 
three great Christian virtues. These various conditions 
were all found in the men of Ireland, and they must 
have been wonderful missionaries. New in the faith, 
that is, ardent and enthusiastic, they undertook the con- 
version of the whole world, degenerate Christians as 
well as Gentiles ; adventurous and romantic, they set 
out for almost inaccessible and still unexplored coun- 
tries ; they visited realms whose history and wonders 
were known but vaguely and by hearsay. On arriving 
among the peoples whom they were to initiate or re- 
form, they displayed unfettered that impetuous and im- 
passioned activity, or that sweet and winning grace, 
that rigid and inflexible force, or that indulgent and 
sympathetic tenderness, which so variously characterize 
the saints of the Irish legend. They found, in fine, in 
their lively intelligence, and the natural qualities of 
their ready oratorical and poetic gifts, invaluable re- 
sources, and powerful means to captivate or sway bar- 
barous minds. 

The work of the Irish apostolate was then active, 
prolonged, sustained, and profitable. 

They entered every country that they could reach, 
and every where their toil was efficacious and fruitful ; 
every where they founded or revived faith and churches, 
discipline and monasteries, science and schools. Thus 
among the Britons of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica ; 
thus among the Anglo-Saxons, Picts, and Icelanders ; 
thus even in France ; thus among the Germanic and 
Sclavic nations of Central Europe. Moreover, they 
did not proceed by order, as may well be supposed, cat- 
echising first one country, then another, or beginning 
by the south or north to redescend or remount towards 



Of Ireland. 273 

the north or south ; or circumscribing around them a 
circle narrow at first, and progressively expanding. 
From the first day, they went around in every direc- 
tion, turning towards every horizon, stopping where 
each was called or detained by his particular vocation, 
borne away wherever the chance of the route or the 
curiosity of zeal swept them on. Adventurous bands 
took their route towards Rome and Jerusalem, and 
Fridolin visited the banks of the Rhine at the same 
time that Fingar, with seven hundred and seventy com- 
panions and seven bishops, landed in Cornwall, and 
that Albeus's twenty-two disciples disembarked on the 
shores of Iceland. 

It was a strange country, that hyperborean Iceland,* 
lost in the Saturnian Sea, now wrapped in mists, now 
locked in frozen waves, smoking and flaming like an 
immense pyre, half extinguished beneath the waters and 
the snows, visible during six months, and vanished dur- 
ing six more ; for from the days of Pytheas all this was 
known to the ancients. Nor were its people less 
strange ; it seems, moreover, that all the nations of that 
latitude had peculiar manners ; that there w^as a boreal 
society and civilization ; and that the climate, as Mon- 
tesquieu will have it, there produced a civil and political 
constitution, which was developed and completed as you 
approached the pole. At the JEbudes, says Solinus,t 
men know not the fruits of the earth ; they live on fish 
and milk ; they have but one king, as their isles are 
separated only by narrow channels, and this king has 
nothing of his own ; all that he possesses is public 
property ; well-ordered laws retain him in rectitude. 

* Pliny, Maj. t Solinus, 25. 



274 Legendary History 

They feared lest cupidity should divert him from the 
path of jxistice ; on the contrary, poverty inspires him 
only with equity. The insular democracy was as fore- 
seeing as suspicious. He has no wife, adds the same 
author, and tlie hope, nay, the very desire and idea of 
creating an heir and founding a dynasty, is thus sup- 
pressed. In return, it was agreed that while none be- 
longed to him as his own, each might provisionally be his. 
At Thule,* the same system prevailed, practised in a 
more general and complete manner. There all were 
kings ; that is to say, the community which in the 
^budes was the custom for the chief, was the universal 
law of tlie nation ; there was no marriage. Their reli- 
gion was cruel ; they shed human blood in their festi- 
vals. Mild and sociable otherwise, they maintained 
with strangers a commerce of barter, and the Britons 
■ — more especially, too, the Scots — carried on dili- 
gently trade and fishery in those parts.f Ernulf, in 
the fifth century, bore the gospel thither ; but this first 
germ seems not to have taken root on the Icelandic 
soil ; for Brio, in the ninth century, found the temples 
still standing, and the rites of the ancient superstition 
prevailing. He it was who founded or prepared the 
theocratic Christian society which replaced the com- 
munism of the Platonist savages of Thule. Then there 
flourished under the rigorous polar skies a happy state, 
where man, respecting his duties, made his rights re- 
spected — a free and Christian state : " The Icelanders 
speak rarely, and always tell the truth ; they make 
no use of oaths, because they know no falsehood. Their 
king is their priest ; their bishop is at the same time 

* SoUnus, 25. f Pliny, Maj. IV. 30. 



Op Ireland. 275 

their prince." Thus wrote even Giraldus. The work 
begun by Ireland in the time of Helgo Biola lasted 
more than four centuries ; it perished only in the thir- 
teenth, under the despotism of Hako, King of Norway. 
In that interval, Iceland had in her turn diffused the 
gospel ; she had borne it to the soil of Greenland, to 
the shores and in the straits of North America. These 
churches perished, lost and forgotten, like icebound 
ships, and long after have their fragments been found. 

The j^Ebudes also had been sanctified ; Columbkill 
planted the cross there, and founded at lona, one of the 
isles of that remote archipelago, the most powerful es- 
tablishment that Christian Ireland ever possessed. The 
Orcades had their apostle, and if we are to believe the 
traditions collected by John of Tynemouth, and another 
legendary, they must have been singularly favored. 
" Servanus," they tell us, " was the first bishop of these 
islands ; he came from afar, for he was the son of an 
Arabian king ; he had been already bishop of the 
Chanaanites ; then came to evangelize the Orkneys ; and 
when he appeared in Italy, his sanctity and glory were 
so great, that the church of Rome made him pope." * 
And even these wonderful adventures are the least in 
his career. 

At lona, Columbkill confronted the Albanian Scots 
and Picts. In the fifth century, the Breton Bishop Nin- 
ian had penetrated among the Southern Picts ; but there 
the work of the Britons stopped. Columbkill resumed 
it, (565.) He went among these fierce men, met and 
overthrew their magicians, and accomplishing prodigies, 
averting scourges, lavishing temporal benefits with the 

* Usher, Brit. Eccles. Antiq. p. 674. 



276 Legendary History 

holy word, lie soon reared up a new church. After him, 
his disciples, alternately leaving lona, penetrated to the 
depths of the valleys, plunged into every mountain 
gorge, traversed lake and heather ; churches multiplied, 
and in the remotest parts of their wild land the Picts 
and Scots saw monasteries rising, of which lona was, 
and long continued to be, the metropolitan. 

Ere long, Aidan saw open before him, (630,) thanks to 
King Oswald, the pagan realm of Northumbria. About 
the same time, (637,) Fursey was welcomed by the king 
of the East Saxons. Lindisfarne and Cnobbhersburg 
rose simultaneously. England was assailed at once 
from the north-west and south-east. Soon after, in 676, 
Maidulf founded, under the protection of King Ethel- 
stan, the celebrated school of Malmesbury. Aidan and 
Finan were truly the apostles of Northern England ; 
they begot to the faith the kings and nations, and held 
them over the font of baptism ; there, too, they arrived 
first, and labored alone. Not so in the south ; at the 
same time that the Irish struck south from lona, mis- 
sionaries sent from Rome entered England, and settled 
in Kent, to the south of the Thames. Cnobbhersburg 
was on the other bank : the Roman and the Scot met 
again. 

Unfortunately, there was no alliance ; the struggle 
which Columban had maintained in France was re- 
newed in England. There were in England, even, three 
churches face to face — Rome, Wales, Ireland. The 
Romans took a decided stand, and assumed to be judges ; 
it was necessary for the Britons to bend to the see of 
Canterbury, and unite with the Romans in converting 
the Anglo-Saxons : they refused. It was necessary for 
the Irish to follow the Roman custom as to the celebra- 



Op Ireland. 277 

tion of Easter : they preferred to retire. The Romans 
remained alone. History tells how they punished the 
British clergy. 

When the Irish left England, and abandoned Lindis- 
farne, England did not withal forget them. The Ro- 
mans were unequal to the task devolved upon them ; 
the exiled masters were sought beyond the sea ; and 
Anglo-Saxons filled the schools of lona, Armagh'* Ross- 
Ailithry, Lismhor, Cluain-Aird. Ireland did not fully 
evangelize pagan England ; but Christian England 
sought, and still received, the lessons of Irish science. 
The alliance was not broken between the two nations ; 
and they found themselves united beforehand when the 
great enterprise was concerned in which they joined 
hands, and in which they needed indeed to marshal all 
their strength. 

Thus far Ireland seems only to prelude and prepare 
herself for the great apostolic work, the conversion of 
Germany. Commencing by the north, as though loath 
to leave a foe in the rear, she had evangelized Iceland, 
the secondary archipelagoes of the Hebrides and Ork- 
neys, then Scotland. Thence she had entered England, 
and there had prepared, in the disciples formed by her, 
valiant and powerful allies, who were even in time to 
become her chiefs. At the same time, she reconnoitred 
the German frontier, planted herself on the Rhine and 
in the Alps ; it was the work of Fridolin, Maccallen, 
Columban, Gall, and Magnoald. Then it was time to 
strike to the very heart of Germany. 

There wandered or roamed, still threatening and 
foaming like wild beasts invested in their dens, or ar- 
rested by barriers, the tribes that came too far or too 
late to pass the Rhine and Danube with the great 
24 



278 Legendary History 

invading armies, and seize a place in the provinces of 
the empire — on the north, the Saxons, and nations of 
their race ; on the south, the Avares, and liordes of 
a kindred blood. One moment, at least, there was a 
dread of a second deluge overwhelming the west, and 
of her now Christianized and half civilized nations dis- 
appearing beneath the heathendom and barbarism of a 
new invasion. The irruption was checked and repelled ; 
this was the task, this the glory of the first Carolingi- 
ans. But as long as these tribes remained pagan and 
savage, the danger subsisted ; they could renew their 
assaults ; and they would not always meet a Karl, a 
Pepin, or a Charlemagne, in arms on the Christian 
frontier. They must needs be converted ; and the Car- 
olingians, Charlemagne especially, sensible of this ab- 
solute necessity, labored energetically and with feverish 
activity to effect the end. Hence the hasty, multiplied 
missions, protected by the buckler, seconded by the 
sword ; hence the imperious summons of the Caesar 
mingling with the exhortations of the bishops ; those 
expeditions in concert with missions, those bloody chas- 
tisements, supplying the inefficacy of canonical penances 
against the apostate or obstinate. Charlemagne was 
the last of his race ; he must perforce leave his work 
complete ; the world's salvation depended on it. 

Ireland aide.d him powerfully. Taking with her the 
Anglo-Saxons whom she had prepared for the apostolate, 
she descended on the shore of Friseland, and meeting 
on the Rhine the reenforcements sent by France, she 
formed that ecclesiastical army that marched with the 
troops of Charlemagne, not unfrequently penetrating 
farther. She facilitated, completed, consolidated the 
triumphs of the Frank warriors, the salvation of Chris- 
tendom, and western society. 



Of Ireland. 279 

Disibod had in the sixth century * opened the road 
to Germany. Flying from the troubles of the Irish 
church, he took refuge on a mountain that overhung the 
course of the Glann. Some disciples bore him com- 
pany ; and then for the first time did Germany hear the 
mystic sound of the Irish bell. It announced the speedy 
arrival of the apostles. 

Rupert, before all others, entered the valley of the 
Danube.f There especially had Christianity suffered 
and lost ground. It had, so to say, been trodden down 
beneath the feet of Attila, and the barbarians who had 
after him marched through those provinces to reach 
Italy. He fixed his residence at Salzburg, and when he 
died, Bavaria, Bohemia, Noricum, Styria, with other prov- 
inces, had already heard the gospel, and the churches 
were rising again. His labors were continued by Vir- 
gil. Soon after. Kilian J preached in Franconia, and, 
with his companions, shed his blood in the country of 
Wirtzburg. Further north, on the banks of the Escaut, 
Livinus too sacrificed his life for the salvation of the 
Friselauders. This was the first period of the long and 
bloody struggle of western Christianity against the 
paganism of the eastern nations, a period wholly Irish, 
and wholly apostolical ; for we do not find one of these 
apostles calling to his aid the power or the arms of the 
Frankish princes. 

Then Willibrord's mission was organized. Egbert, 
Archbishop of York, chose twelve monks, whom he 
committed to the guidance of Willibrord ; they were 



* Vita Disibod, in Surius. 

t Vita Ruperti, in Colgan. (But see Hansorius, Germania Sacra, p. 

+ Vita Kilian. Ant. Lect. (Can.) 



280 Legendary History 

S with berth, Wigberth, Herenfrid, and others, whose 
names are unknown. All these names are Anglo-Sax- 
ons, and the mission set out from England. Yet it was 
Irish too ; for Willibrord,* Wigberth, like Egberth 
himself, were pupils of Ireland. They bent their way 
to Friseland, advancing thence into Denmark ; the first 
efforts were not happy ; but the Franks soon conquered 
the Friselanders. Willibrord fixed his residence at 
Treves, and the labors of the mission began again with 
better success. 

Winfred (this was Boniface's Saxon name) then 
came with a new legion — Burchard, Lull, Willibald, 
and Wunibald, Witta, Gregory. These were not from 
the schools of Ireland. Many others doubtless set out 
with Winfred, and among these were natives of Ire- 
land ; others too, perhaps from Ireland, subsequently 
joined him in Germany ^ but England already seemed 
to separate ; she did her work apart, and if she still 
associated with Ireland, it was to lord over her. Boni- 
face fixed his abode at Mentz. This was showing 
already that the work had advanced. With what ardor 
and with what ability he labored there in his turn ; how 
by him and after him was accomplished that conversion 
of the Saxons, pressed at once by the Frank warriors 
and the English missionaries, is well known. The Eng- 
lish, moreover, soon tired of the work. It seems that 
even then, before the Norman blood was mingled in 
their veins, evangelical works, heroic sacrifices of char- 
ity, accorded ill with their temper. Since the days of 
Boniface, they have formed many establishments, effected 
many conquests ; they have organized many missions 

* Bede, Hist. Eccl. Alcuin, Vita Willibrord. 



Of Ireland. 281 

even : but true missionaries are not organized ; the 
English have never conquered for the gospel ; their 
establishments have not jDeen made to gain souls. 

While the English halted on the banks of the Rhine, 
the Irish pressed forward.* Patto, from his Saxon 
bishopric, descended to the shores of the Baltic ; Albuin 
won by his labors the title of Apostle of the Thurin- 
gians. Two centuries had now elapsed, and they he- 
roically pursued the unaccomplished work among these 
hard and rebellious people : in the ninth century, Tan- 
cho, Isenger, Ernulf, were the victims of the wrath of 
the pagans ; in the eleventh, and in the same countries, 
John found the crown of martyrdom. We call these 
because their names are inserted in the Martyrology, 
because they have left bloody traces on the soil ; and 
yet many others labored with them, like them giving 
their strength, their very life. Adam of Bremen, and 
all the ecclesiastical writers of Germany, have related 
their history, or at least handed down their memory. 
The first pages in the archives of the sees and monas- 
teries of Germany are full of Irish names ; for the 
churches born in the blood of the first apostles were 
long instructed and edified by their successors. 

Such was the work of the Irish missionaries. By 
them the light of the gospel illumined the nations lost 
in the north of the European ocean, and was reflected 
on the icebergs of the poles ; by them the Picts, the 
Scots, the Anglo-Saxons, were initiated in Christian 
doctrine and learning ; by them, in fine, the fierce and 
savage tribes of the continent, both in the centre and 
horth, were preached to, baptized, gathered in churches, 

* Acta SS. Hiberniae. 
24* 



282 Legendary History 

attached more strongly to their soil, and prepared for 
civilization. They ceased to threaten or alarm the al- 
ready organized Catholic nations of the west ; and then, 
too, a Christian empire was permitted to rise among 
them. We may in justice say that the Irish apostles 
were, to a great extent, the real founders of the German 
empire, and the peaceful precursors of the house of Ba- 
benberg. To one who would appreciate the immense 
service which they rendered to Christendom and Chris- 
tianity, it is enough to reflect on what Europe was doing 
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and to ask what 
she could have done, if the church had not first labored 
for three centuries to gather in the faith all these bar- 
barous tribes, in whom eight centuries of time, diplo- 
macy and war, of convulsions and revolutions, have not 
since then blended or severed nationalities, fused or 
separated language, organized a constitution, regulated 
confusion, and fixed the political condition. 

In this long and manifold history of Irish missions 
there would be more than one touching episode, more 
than one dramatic scene to gather up, more than one 
interesting life to relate. Rupert,* his endless journeys, 
his fruitful preaching, his foundations, his happy and ever 
unwearied old age, mildly closing in the apostolic labor ; 
Erentrude, his sister or niece, his inseparable companion, 
come with him from his own land, following him every 
where, on the Danube, in the Alps, and at Rome, pray- 
ing him not to die before her, begging him with tears at 
least not to leave her long after him in this world ; 
Theodo, the good Duke of Bavaria, so easily converted, 
so zealous for the faith, so tenderly devoted to its apos- 

* Vita Ruperti, in Surius, and in Colgan. 



Op Irelan-d. 283 

tie, and commending him in his last moments to his heir 
with pious and earnest impressiveness ; these serene 
figures, these well-spent lives, form paintings in the 
legend, whose soft coloring, sober charm, and evangelic 
character, we would fain reproduce. If Rupert and 
Erentrude are disputed with Ireland, we might easily 
put in their stead saints whose nationality is less 
doubtful. 

Moreover, there was not merely a torpid and ruin- 
covered Christianity to awaken, among these hardy 
men of the Rhine, Weser, and Elbe ; hardier toil and 
bloodier scenes were to be confronted. We see Kilian * 
and his companions prepare long in their Irish monas- 
tery for their difficult mission ; then passing through 
Rome, fortified by the blessing of the successor of the 
apostles, enter Franconia, and there publish, in words 
of eloquence, the new doctrine ; Gosbert converted, and 
soon amazed that more rigorous obligations were re- 
vealed to him, and gradually imposed upon him ; then 
a woman, Geilana, threatened in her ambition and her 
love, arm her power and wiles against the saints; 
the saints, with a presentiment of their death, prepare 
calmly for it in prayer. One night they disappeared. 
" They have apparently departed," says Geilana ; and 
the wretched duke forgot them, relapsed unto his guilty 
love and his idolatry. Meanwhile, the bodies of the 
martyrs were concealed under an unclean soil ; a pious 
woman had alone witnessed the massacre of the victims, 
and honored their memory. The forgetfulness and the 
profanation ceased only when the day of revelation and 
chastisement came for Geilana and her companions. 

* Egilw. Vita Kiliani. 



284 Legendary History 

"We should fear, on taking up one of these narratives, 
to add pages to pages already too numerous. They 
belong, moreover, to history ; and by the authors who 
relate them, as well as by the spots where they occurred, 
they are German. No one of the^e apostles, in fine, 
stands in sufficient relief in the Irish legend to call for 
a distinct place. They form a glorious group, and it 
would be of little use to divide this collective glory, to 
detach a name, in order to exalt it above the others, and 
invest it with a glory all its own. 



Op Ireland. 285 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

THE JRISH LEGEND ABROAD. 

History and the legend may sometimes be allied ; 
they may be contemporaneous and live in the same 
country, take up and be inspired by the same facts and 
the same personages ; while one discovers and exposes, 
the other transforms or imagines. But it is not always 
so ; and most frequently it is in the silence of history 
that the legend is heard ; she is silent when history 
speaks. If the truthful statements of history make us 
at times regret the doubtful stories of the legend, it 
happens, too, that real scenes and human figures possess 
so dramatic a pathos, so grave an interest, that we 
should perhaps regret to see the imagination touch the 
noble outlines. Sanctity and heroism, when haloed by 
the marvellous, rise in our regard, but at the same time 
recede ; our surprise redoubles, but our belief dimin- 
iijhes ; in most cases at least our faith hesitates. Now 
to esteem, to admire, to love, we must believe in the 
reality of what we love. In the satisfaction which our 
soul experiences on reading the account of great actions 
and great virtues, there is more than superficial emotion 
of sympathy or admiration ; there is the heartfelt satis- 
faction, the secret consolation given by the spectacle of 
the moral power and beauty attainable by that humanity, 
to which we ourselves belong, and which, on the other 
hand, our vileness rivals so poorly. If history then has 



286 Legendary History 

saints and heroes, whose grandeur the legend has not 
exalted, whose perfection it has not idealized, so much 
the better ; the more incredulous will be able to credit 
it, and consequently admire them, perhaps even think 
of imitating at a distance their more easy virtues. 

Let us not seek, then, in the lives of the Irish apostles 
and martyrs, other poetry than that of their evangelical 
toil, and the bloody sacrifice of self-devoting charity. 
Their life and death happily belong to history ; their 
acts and their passions are but the true and simple, albeit 
touching and dramatic, prologue of German history. 
But are there no other saints whom the Irish imagination 
has followed in their wanderings ? Among those who 
went to live and die afar, are there none who were 
curiously accompanied on their course, whose adventures 
have been collected and adorned ? It would seem natu- 
ral for the Irish legend, in this movement which carried 
away the whole church, and amid this nomade people, 
to emigrate also, and journey in order to relate on its 
return what had been seen and done by those who re- 
turned not ; and it would be interesting to follow this 
poetic traveller. 

Yet it was not so. The Irish legend does not leave 
Ireland. Ireland forgot those whose face she no longer 
beheld, or whose ashes she possessed not. She left at 
least to the foreign land the care of their memory, and 
the lives of the saints who died on the continent was writ- 
ten by the nations whose native land they had adopted. 
Their legend, then, does not properly belong to Ireland. 
The saints are Irish, their legends German, Breton, or 
French. 

The saint, in fact, is not the author of his legend, but 
the hero. He exists in it, doubtless, and by his spirit, 



Op Ireland. 287 

his works, his life, his character, gives the first matter ; 
the church and the people complete it, infusing their love, 
their imagination, their faith ; infusing, too, their ideas, 
their customs, and their national genius. Nations do 
nothing that has not a national stamp ; if what is na- 
•tional is popular, so, too, what is popular is national. 
No literary, poetic, religious work can, any more than 
the legend, imprint itself deeply in the spirit of a nation. 
Hence, in the first centuries of the middle ages, wher- 
ever a nationality grew up, there too arose a legend 
with its distinctive traits ; and the existence of such a 
legend must be one of the surest symptoms to attest the 
existence of a nationajity in that country ; for if the 
legend has not the meagre advantages which men may 
choose to decern to what, perhaps, at this epoch of his- 
tory, is called by the privileged name of literature, it 
has that of reflecting more directly, more faithfully, 
more happily, the spirit, character, and condition of 
nations. 

We have no intention here of comparing legend with 
legend. To do this, one must perforce be erudite and 
critical. The occasion, too, would be ill chosen. It 
behooves us only, in order to avoid a hiatus, and a tri- 
fling one at most, to say something of the manner in 
which France and Germany relate the lives of the 
saints who came over from Ireland, and to notice, in 
these acts of various origins, some of the traits which 
belong to what may be called legendary poesy or mar- 
vellous, or the legendary picturesque. 

" The illustrious Lebwin, (Livinus,) says Radbod, ser- 
vant of the church of Treves, passes the sea ; the 
virtues are his oars, Christ the rower. . . . The 
pagan land, soon amazed, beheld him give up to a divine 



288 Legendary History 

fire the evil fruit which it had till then produced, and 
share its fields, assigning to these the allegorical vines, 
to those the pure wheat, to others the trees of the faith. 
. . . Then you should see the till then sterile 
herbs adorn themselves with brilliant flowers, &c. 
. . . Let us love him then devoutly, and hyntn 
him with sweet accords. Let us sing in Latin his Bre- 
ton name. . . ." Were we to gather what was 
written before the crusades, on the subject of, and in 
honor of, the saints of Ireland, we should have greatly 
to swell our volume. If we confine ourselves to the 
legend, limit ourselves especially to the German and 
French Acts, the field is narrow, the harvest far from 
rich, the gathering soon accomplished. 

Columban, we have said, is not a legendary person- 
age. Yet when his history was \^ritten, Bobbio was 
still an Irish house ; Attala, the saint's disciple, gov- 
erned it ; Jonas, who was appointed to tl^e task, was 
probably Irish ; he was at least a pupil of Erin, im- 
bued with her spirit. It is, moreover, hard to resist 
the necessity of mingling in the gravest narratives 
picturesque, poetic, or wondrous circumstances, the tra- 
dition of which had been sown by the divine will, or 
popular imagination. It was even a duty which was 
perhaps with difficulty escaped ; it was, in fine, for the 
writer, the doubtless preferred portion of his labor, 
that on which he dwelt with most pleasure, in which he 
reposed with most delight. There is then a legendary 
side in Columban's history, too. We have carefully 
kept it aside in the historic account of his mission ; 
and yet the traits added by the legend happily soften 
that severe and imperious countenance, so full of action 
and passion^ We no longer behold hini the uncon- 



Op Ireland. 289 

quered athlete,* coping with princes, or watchful 
guardian of the church, questioning popes, and boldly 
probing their soul. In the calm retreat he rests after 
the combat ; under the silent trees of the wildwood, 
he walks noiselessly along, his countenance re-serened ; 
lie is illumined with a calmer ligl^t ; from the depth 
of his soul emanates the happy and sympathetic mild- 
ness in which we ever behold a Kewin and a Columb- 
kill revel ; and the timid innocent beasts come at his 
kindly call, basking in his gentle smile. 

Jonas has quaintly told another scene. Columban 
one day, in a retired solitude, alone with his thoughts, 
was meditating ; he was thinking surely of Theuderic, 
of Brunehilde, for he asked himself whether it were 
better for him to be exposed to the violence of men, 
or abandoned to the ferocity of beasts. Then covering 
his brow with signs of the cross, redoubling his 
prayers, he said in himself that it was better to suffer 
the fury of beasts, with no soul sullied, than to expe- 
rience from men iniquities by which they lost their 
souls. At that very instant wolves appeared. There 
were wolves on the right, on the left, on all sides ; they 
surrounded him. The saint stopped, and, rooted to the 
ground, repeated, in a whisper, " God, incline unto 
my aid ; Lord, make haste to help me." The wolves 
came on ; their jaws were opened upon him ; they 
touched his garments. The saint stood straight and 
firm. After a little while, the wolves drew off, for, as 
Jonas believes, the saint had not feared. After all, 
were they real wolves ? Were they not phantoms cre- 
ated by the devil ? Columban himself was not sure, 

* Jonas, Vita Columbani. 

25. 



290 Legendary History 

and Jonas apparently being no wiser, the thing remains 
in doubt. 

St. Gall,"^ who lived and died in Switzerland, and 
threw such lustre on it, soon had his legend, and Wala- 
frid has handed it down to us. When Columban took 
up his abode at Ba'igante, where he spent three years, 
Gall was intrusted with the fishing ; he made nets, and 
so marvellous were the meshes of his net, that the mon- 
astery never wanted fish. So abundant, in fine, was his 
fishery, that it sufiiced also for the people and pilgrims. 
He fished by night ; once then, that of a dark and silent 
night, he was preparing his nets on the banks of the 
lake ; a loud, harsh voice resounded from the mountain 
top ; it called, and soon another voice, issuing from the 
depths of the waters, replied : they were the spirits of 
the lake and the mountain. " Come,'^ said the mountain, 
" arise, and help me, that together we may drive out 
these foreigners." "Alas!" replied the voice of the 
lake, "have I not to suffer? Does not one of them 
pursue me to the depths of my waters ? I cannot even 
gnaw his nets, or escape his hauls. They are fearful 
enemies, ever on the watch, ever witli the name of God 
on their lips. We shall never conquer them." The 
man of God heard them, and arming himself with the 
sign of the cross, he said aloud, " In the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, I bid you leave these spots, and for- 
bid you to injure any one here." Then he returned. 
Ere long the bell summoned the brethren into the 
church, and even before they began to chant the psalms, 
they heard the wild and terrible cries of the evil spirits 
flying away over the mountain tops. 

* "Walafiid Strabo, Tita S. Galli. 



Of Ireland. 291 

The legend of Magnoald * and that of Gall have a 
singular resemblance ; they may be said to form but 
one ; and it is, moreover, easy to see that the master and 
the disciple, after a common life, have no history apart 
from each other. The pages of AValafrid almost repro- 
duced the more ancient accounts of Theodore, differing 
only in details, sometimes in the character. In Theo- 
dore, too, the evil spirits speak ; but the scene has not 
the Germanic imprint which stamps the narrative of 
Walafrid, two centuries later. For it must be remarked 
that it was not in France that Walafrid gathered up 
and arranged these traditions ; he wrote at Fulda, un- 
der the genius of Germany. Theodore wrote in Swit- 
zerland, soon after the death of the two saints whose 
scholar he was ; and it would seem as if the German 
genius had not then yet had time to learn their history, 
to relate it after its own fashion ; or else we may be- 
lieve that Switzerland, then half French, half German, 
had the neutral spirit and hybrid taste of transition 
peoples and intermediate literatures. 

This Helvetic legend is in itself, in fact, all legends ; 
it seems, at least, as though they had wished to repro- 
duce there together the forms that legendary narratives 
most generally take. Devils, animals, monsters, all take 
part. The devils are merry ; they pun, and console 
themselves, or revenge themselves on Gall and Mag- 
noald by jests and puns ; the name Gall signifies, in 
Latin, a Gaul, or a cock. " What shall we do here ? '' 
cries one. " Here is a new cock, and he is worse than 
the first. He crows too loud ; he will force us to go." 
The birds are tired of eating ; this is not the miracle ; 

* Theodore, Vita Magnoald, (Messingham.) 



292 Legendary History 

they stop to be taken, and the feathery band takes the 
liberty of flying off only when the saint has made his 
choice among them. Bears are important personages, 
as is natural in Switzerland ; it was one of them that 
revealed to Magnoald the iron mines of Suiting. The 
story is this. 

Magnoald was in the wood, felling trees ; a bear 
came trotting along. They were more numerous there 
than wolves in the Yosges ; the saint had seen some 
already, and they had shared in peace the fruits on 
which, like them, he lived. These powerful beasts had 
even become the servants of the holy solitaries ; they 
helped them to build their monastery, carrying the 
largest stones, and cutting down the trees. This one 
then came up to Magnoald, and with great gentleness, 
says Theodore, and signs of intelligence, scratching the 
earth at the foot of a pine tree, gave him to under- 
stand that there was abundance of iron under the tree. 
When he had scratched for a long time the tree fell, 
and the iron appeared under its roots. The saint and 
the bear went for Liuto, told him to take his axe, and 
all his tools, and intrusted him to the new guide. 
*' Thou wilt guide him," said he to the bear, " to the 
spot that the Lord has shown us ; but take care lest any 
other animal harm him." The bear trotted on ahead, 
clearing the way, and brought him back with like 
fidelity. 

While the Germanic tribes of the Upper Rhine heard 
these first monastic glories, where traditions peculiar to 
the mountains, and German fantasy, blend already with 
exotic ideas, the history of another Irishman was pop- 
ularized a little lower down in the country of the 
Ehine and the Moselle : and the irrefragable sign of 



Op Ireland. 293 

this popularity is here, too, the national stamp with 
which the legend is impressed. What we relate took 
place at Seckingen. There Fridolin, after living and 
teaching long years at Poitiers, near the tomb of St. 
Hilary, came to settle and to die. Among those whose 
piety had contributed to the foundation and endowment 
of his monastery, were two brothers, Ursus and Lan- 
dolph. Ursus died, and Landolph, left alone, took back 
from the monastery his own donation, denied that made 
by his brother, declared that he resumed all.* Fridolin 
complained to the landgrave, and both parties were 
cited to his tribunal of Ganwilre. Then, says the le- 
gend, the saint went to the tomb of Ursus, called him, 
and Ursus rose at his call. The saint took him by the 
hand, and both walked together the distance of six 
miles to Ganwilre, where Landolph awaited them with 
many enemies of the Irish saint. But when Fridolin 
appeared at the feet of the judge, with his awful witness, 
the spectators shuddered. Ursus, turning to Landolph, 
said, " Why, brother, hast thou robbed my soul by steal- 
ing property that was mine?" "0 brother," replied 
Landolph, " I restore thee thy share, and mine too. I 
give it all to the monastery of Seckingen." Fridolin 
then bore home the corpse to which he had for a mo- 
ment restored life, and when the tomb was closed, four 
verses were engraved upon it, attesting to future gen- 
erations the strange and menacing story. 

France, too, drew up her marvellous stories of Irish 
saints, less sombre and less sinister, however. Fursey 
had founded Lagny ; but good Duke Haymo had prom- 
ised to found one monastery more,t and he had not ful- 

* Balther, Vita Fridolin. f Fursei Miracula, (Mabillon.) 

25* 



294 Legendary History 

filled his promise. Meanwhile Fursej died, and the 
duke was in ignorance of the event. But as he was 
going to sit down, he suddenly beheld blessed Fursey 
coming, with two deacons behind him. All three bore 
lighted tapers ; they set them silently on the table, and 
disappeared. Haymo, greatly troubled, cried out to 
those around him, " And do you not behold the glory 
that I see?" But it was not revealed to their eyes. 
And the duke resumed, sadly, " Now I know that the 
saint has left this world ; let us go and bury him." 

There was, says Gregory of Tours,* on the limit of 
the country, a mound covered with brambles, ivy, and 
wild vines, so that no one could or durst penetrate 
through it. For it was said that of old two holy vir- 
gins had dwelt there. On the eves of holidays, a bright 
light shone there, a taper of marvellous whiteness, whose 
flame lighted up all far and near. One day, the virgins 
appeared to an inhabitant of the place ; they com- 
plained of the oblivion in which they were left, of the 
rain, the wind, and all the inclemencies of the season, 
that assailed and profaned their uncovered tomb. 

Euphronius then governed the church of Tours. The 
complaint of these gentle and forsaken foreigners was 
heard ; for they were foreign maidens, natives of Ire- 
land. They appeared also to Euphronius, pressing him 
with touching words to protect what was yet left of 
their mortal frame ; and the holy bishop preserved a 
pious remembrance of their visits. They were called 
Maura and Britta — harmonious names ; one was larger 
than the other, as he related, although they were equal 
in merit ; but both were whiter than the snow. They 

* De Glor. conf. 



Of Ireland. 295 

deserved a better hospitality, a surer and less savage 
shelter, than a roof of leaves and thorns. The ivy and 
vine, which had long been their only protectors, made 
way for an oratory ; the virgins no longer came to bum 
on their own tomb the divine and perfumed wax of the 
miraculous torch ; but the church lit up her tapers 
there, there exhaled her incense, and poured forth her 
holy water and her prayers. 

These stories are more pleasing; they spring from 
the smiling genius and the temperate sky of the prov- 
inces, so truly called the Garden of France. 

We must add these stories to the testimonies which 
we elsewhere adduce : they combine to show what a 
remembrance foreign lands preserved of their Irish 
guests. But the pure life, the sympathetic and benevo- 
lent character, the evangelic soul of these holy men 
left to the nations that had welcomed them not only 
poetic and marvellous inspirations, they brought, too, 
their national traditions of their own isle. They taught 
their German or French disciples the legend of their 
church, and also all that their Fileas told of the remote 
origin and early ages of the Heberians. Curious fact ! 
it is in the life of an Irish saint, written at Metz, in the 
tenth or early part of the eleventh century, that we find 
these traditions. We met them, it will be remembered, 
in the book of the Briton Nennius, but we may seek- 
traces of them in vain in the Irish Acts. According to 
Mabillon, Ousmann or Reimann must have been the 
author of the Life of Kaddroe ; he must have been a 
disciple of the saint, and heard from his lips the story 
which he subsequently made his prologue. According 
to Colgan, the life in question is by some nameless au- 
thor who never saw Kaddroe, but only his disciples. 



296 Legendary History 

Under the last hypothesis, the presence, the persistence 
of the national traditions of Ireland among the German 
monks of Lorraine would be a still more interesting and 
remarkable fact. 

This is not the spot to follow up a narrative that 
leads us back to the first pages of this book, to the pre- 
ambles of our history. The itinerary of the Scoto- 
Milesians, moreover, and their voyages, as traced and 
related by the monk of Lorraine,* would neither be 
agreeable nor instructive. It is a pilgrimage start- 
ing on the banks of the Pactolus, pursued across the 
^gean Sea, the Ionian and the Adriatic Gulf, to be lost 
finally in the Ionian Sea and Gulf of Lyons ; then, es- 
caping by the Straits of Gades, the emigrants entered 
the Atlantic, for a moment passed their destination, and 
were borne to the shores of Thule, whence they re- 
turned, to touch at last on the shores of lerne or Ire- 
land. At that time, according to the same historian, 
Julius Caesar had just completed the conquest of Gaul, 
and Pompey the Great ruled at Rome. It will be seen 
that on this point the author is not in harmony with 
attested traditions,t or that more probably he forgot his 
dates. 

These traits suffice to show the vestiges left by the 
Irish in foreign legends. When we think of the great 
number of those who for five centuries mingled in the 
churches and tribes of the continent, if the wonder is 
that the traces are not more numerous, it must be re- 
membered that we have left aside the annals of history, 
and to history almost exclusively belong the men who 
left Ireland to instruct the churches or evangelize the 

* Yita Kaddroe, (Colgan.) f McGeoghegan, History of Ireland. 



Op Ireland. 29T 

nations. Every people, on the other hand, by virtue of 
the national spirit that it bears instinctively in all 
things, has for its own saints an easier admiration, a 
more ready cultus, a more fruitful imagination, and a 
more faithful memory. The most insignificant monas- 
tery has, if possible, its saints and its legend ; their 
virtue and their relics are its glory, and often, too, its 
treasure ; and the faithful, v^ith a piety not unmixed 
with pride and sympathy, adopt, exalt, and transmit, 
embellished, of course, the sanctity and miracles of him 
who has honored the country. Less lovingly is kept 
alive the remembrance of a stranger, cordial and re- 
spectful as may have been the hospitality he received. 
A scanty few are kept alive in men's minds, the more 
illustrious ones, or those whose renown has been main- 
tained or restored by some happy circumstance. 



298 Legendary History 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

OBSERVATION ON THE IRISH LEGEND. 

We know now how the legend has related the history 
of the first ages of Christian Ireland. We can judge 
Ireland, and especially can we judge the legend ; and if 
this book is a reduced, but clear and faithful image of 
the whole legend, the judgment is an easy one. 

Every legend is, or aims to be, poetic ; every legend 
loves and seeks the marvellous ; every legend, in its 
conceptions, be they simple, quaint, or imperfect, attains 
or pursues an ideal type ; how these inspirations and 
these instincts are found in the lives of the Irish saints, 
the reader has seen ; he can appreciate, too, what 
graces, imagination, mystic poesy, and sanctity, the pop- 
ular and mo*nastic genius of Ireland has infused into the 
narrative. 

We have said that the Irish legend is profoundly 
national. It is so in the character of its saints, in their 
sentiments, their actions, their spirit, their discipline ; 
it is so by the character of its stories, their form and 
style, by the wonders which it prefers, by the tendencies 
it reveals. This originality is manifest, even without 
comparison. Little as one may know of other legends, 
it is more striking still. 

When we read the legend, when we pass through 
these long galleries, where the monks have ranged the 
portraits of those whom the church honors, all these 



Op Ireland, 299 

countenances, transformed by sanctity, -would seem, at 
first sight, to be necessarily alike. Each of them rep- 
resenting the Christian ideal, it seems as though the 
same traits should be every where reproduced, and that 
purity, benignity, quiet, austerity, fortitude, and asceti- 
cism, mingled in almost unvarying proportions, should 
be the immutable character of these evangelical physi- 
ognomies. 

We find some difficulty in varying, even in imagina- 
tion, the countenances of angels. It may at once be 
asked how human individualities, so easily distinguished 
in the inexhaustible diversity of present imperfection, 
will be capable of distinction in the unity of ideal per- 
fection, which apparently the benefit of resurrection 
will confer on them. Yet the personages of the legend 
have their distinctive character and physiognomy. Pat- 
rick, Columbkill, Mochoedoc, Keiwin, Columban, <fec., 
are figures that resemble each other, yet differ. In the 
Irish legend, particularly, diversity is visible, and the 
features of the saints are as different as the stories 
which make up their history. 

The women, mingling in the ranks of the three or- 
ders, mingling especially in the general life of the 
church and of the saints, add to this already manifold 
variety. Bridget is of course remembered. Call to 
mind, too, Meda, Rethna, Lassara, Fanchea, the pupils, 
friends, teachers even, of Brendan, Colman, Kiaran, 
Enda ; recall these severe and fond maternities, these 
humble or protective friendships, that grace, ever pure 
yet ever tender, that sweet and charming sanctity, in 
fine, which seduced, and at the same time reassured, the 
most austere souls. We have found the trace, and, so 
to say, the perfume, in some pages of the legend, where 



300 Legendary History 

the daughters of Ireland seem to have left, with their 
amiable virtues and profound sensibility, something of 
their poetic imagination and smiling fancy. They figure 
in the three orders ; they have also their place in the 
thaumaturgic triad, in that glorious trinity that crowns 
the Irish calendar. Patrick there represents the active 
power, the exterior spirit, the apostolic virtues of the 
church ; Columbkill, the interior beatitude, the mystic 
life, the illuminated recollection of the cloisters ; Brid- 
get, the graceful perfections, the pure and touching ten- 
derness, the penetrating and sympathetic charm of 
woman, idealized by sanctity. It suffices thus to show 
some of the characteristics of the Irish legend ; the 
reader will complete them without difficulty. 

There is, however, one observation on which we wish 
to dwell. 

The triad of which we spoke does not merely crown 
the Irish calendar ; it comprises it, and is its brilliant 
symbol. The triad is entirely monastic ; the calendar 
is also entirely monastic, at least entirely ecclesiastical. 
Eead these long lists : all the names belong to the mon- 
astery or the church. Where is laical sanctity ? Either 
it fails or is excluded ; but it evidently fails. 

The church institutes the saints whom the people 
honor with her. When she leans to take near her, to 
choose, in her own bosom, those who are worthy above 
d-U, of these high honors, she but obeys a quite natural 
impulse. The church teaches sanctity ; her mission is 
to furnish at once lesson and model ; that she finds in 
herself the most striking lessons and most perfect mod- 
els, in this there is nothing improbable ; and if she pro- 
poses them in preference to the imitation of the faithful, 
she conforms to their interests and her strict duty. 



Op Ireland. 301 

It was not so in the first ages of Christianity ; but 
this depended on circumstances. It was the time of 
persecutions, confessors, and martyrs ; the martyr beati- 
fied, the confession sanctified ; all, ecclesiastics and 
laics, might suffer or die for their faith. The crown 
was the reward of the combat and the sign of victory. 
The martyrs bore it to heaven ; the confessors bore it 
in this world — a difficult struggle indeed, a glorious 
triumph, a palm valiantly conquered, yet less merito- 
rious, perhaps, than the long trial of life. Happy he 
whose body has been overcome by the executioners, and 
whose soul has soared to heaven ; he was sure alike of 
glory and sanctity. How many of the survivors pre- 
served their crown intact ? The church has mournfully 
told us in her annals ; more than once was she afflicted, 
troubled, scandalized sometimes, by those whose heroism 
had constituted her consolation and her pride ; and the 
History of the Confessors is one of the books where we 
may learn the secret and measure of human strength 
and human weakness. 

When the church was at peace, heaven was no longer 
taken by violence ; men were no longer declared saints 
for one proof of courage, one remarkable action ; it 
required a whole life fall of spotless virtues. This per- 
severing perfection, difficult every where, was less so in 
the church and in the depths of the cloister ; thither 
went those who mused on it ; there many found it, per- 
haps, who never sought it. In fact, when barbarians 
came with disorder, violence, and fearful chaos, in which 
a new unorganized state of society fermented, men fled 
to places of asylum. There — that is to say, in the 
holy places ~ gathered almost all those alarmed souls, 
timid or tender souls, enamoured of good or of peace, 
26 



302 Legendary History 

souls fitted for the evangelical virtues. Sanctity found 
itself then in the church and cloister, rarely elsewhere, 
more frequently too in the cloister than in the church, 
because the monks were more removed than the priests 
from the violent and corrupt lay society of the day. 
Can we wonder then that the saints of the middle ages 
wore the monk's or priesf s gown, that Religion honored 
scarcely any but those devoted to her ? 

The fact is general ; it is reproduced in all martyr- 
ologies ; but it is most striking of all in that of Ire- 
land. The exceptions disappear ; the exclusion is ab- 
solute. Nor is it merely the calendar that is silent as 
to the virtues of the laity ; the whole legend is so. 
From good King Connall, neither before Guarius nor 
after, is there a prince who wears the heart of a monk 
under his warrior's harness. We do not find in Ire- 
land, as in other lands, pious nobles the protectors, 
friends, companions even, of the saints, men whose loyal 
and religious countenances look so well in the legend ; 
none of those Christian women, who become the de- 
voted servants, the humble benefactresses, of the men 
of God. Nowhere, in a word, do we find the faithful 
beside the priest, imitation near the model, laical virtue 
with ecclesiastical sanctity. 

This hiatus is a sad one. The sanctity of the church 
and the cloister is an ideal, mystical one ; it has its pe- 
culiar character, its particular laws, by the very fact 
that the ecclesiastical profession is a profession apart. 
The duties, conditions, qualities of sanctity in the world, 
are always a little diff'erent. Is is good for souls en- 
gaged in the sentiments, interests, labors, of tlie family, 
society, and world, to have before their eyes models 
that they may imitate more closely, more easily, and 



Of Ireland. 303 

perhaps with a secret preference. The Roman church 
divined this preference when it inscribed on its martyr- 
ology so many men who had lived in the world ; when 
with attentive care, which it would be miserably wrong 
to treat as puerile, it found for every class, every rank, 
every trade, patrons who suited them, and were theirs by 
origin ; it satisfied not only a sentiment of human vanity, 
— it showed regard for certain natural proprieties, and 
facilitated the salvation of souls. Must one be a monk 
to be a saint ? Is sanctity supererogatory or unneces- 
sary for him who is not a monk ? Or must he, to save 
his soul, fly from the world ? Doubtless none of these. 
No more than any other church, did or could the Irish 
church believe it. 

Why, then, this exclusion ? Why, in this long his- 
tory, where we find what Christian virtues a country 
can see and practise in six centuries, is there not one 
lay virtue revealed and honored? not a man, not a 
woman, of all that great multitude, comes forth pointed 
out to the respect and sympathy of the faithful ? Or, 
rather, where is the Irish people ? One might say that 
the church stands alone. 

When we admit that in Ireland, where monastic insti- 
tutions, and especially monastic sentiments, developed so 
energetically, the spirit of the church was also more 
absolute and more exclusive, this would be but an in- 
sufficient and totally hypothetical explanation. We 
must seek another. 

The churches in the first centuries of the middle age 
were the sole depositories of the moral principles whence 
modern society was to- rise. They were to act on the 
nations, wrest them from barbarism, prepare them for 
civilization. Nowhere did this power remain impotent 



304 Legendary History 

where exercised ; it was every where fruitful. Nowhere 
has it been replaced by another. To the clergy exclu- 
sively and entirely belongs this sacred mission of pres- 
ervation and initiation. Nowhere, in fine, it seems, has 
the action of the church been more free, more efficacious, 
more sovereign, than amid those tribes of Ireland, 
prompt in faith, faithful in doctrine, firm in obedience, 
respectful for religion, and finally so fruitful in monastic 
and priestly virtues, in apostolic works, in Christian 
devotedness. 

But to act on society, we must not keep aloof from it. 
To form a man is a difficult thing. What is it then to 
form a whole people ? To change to civilized nations 
the hordes of barbarians whom Providence confided to 
the care of the churches, what pains, what time, what 
assiduity, what zeal ! It had to intervene ever, every 
where, in every thing, in politic, public, and private life, 
in laws, in manners, in conscience. The master was not 
permitted to lose sight of his disciple ; he had to min- 
gle his own life with the latter's, be present at his ac- 
tions, words, and thoughts. Thus, aided by centuries, 
advanced painfully the education of modern nations. 
Their education has advanced more rapidly where the 
preceptors were more vigilant, active, and assiduous. 
The progress of the one is in direct proportion to the 
zeal of the other. 

Hence, too, the history of tlie churches of the middle 
age is, in general, so closely blended with the history of 
nations. Hence we commonly find, even in the legends, 
this anecdotic and marvellous history of the saints, 
the traces of their action on the men and the events of 
their country ; hence, in the accounts of the cloister and 
solitude, there is a part for secular life, a place for lay 
virtue. 



Op Ireland. 305 

These expressive signs of the commerce and solidarity 
that unites each church with its people, the saints with 
the profane, we find in the first pages of the Irish 
legend. Why do we never see it afterwards appear ? 
Did the Irish church separate from the people ? After 
having evangelized and baptized it, did it abandon Ire- 
land to itself ? One would think so, to see the lists of 
its saints, to read the narratives of its legend. We 
could thus explain why the nation is absent, why the 
church stands alone. If the two societies lived apart, 
why do we find the names and acts that belong to the 
one appearing in the history or the catalogues of the 
other? 

But such a divorce supposes deep-rooted dissimilitude, 
or rather produces it. To live so near, yet severed, 
would require to have nothing in common. But if lay 
society had nothing in common with the church, what 
was lay society ? 

In other terms, what was the actual influence exer- 
cised by the church on the Irish nation ? Thus reap- 
pears, at the close of this history^ the question which we 
had put or felt at its commencement. The moment has 
come to examine and solve it. The examination shall 
be rapid, the response summary. 

If we find that the Irish church acted feebly on the 
people that surrounded it, that the Irish nation remained 
gross, almost savage, in mind, manners, institutions, and 
laws, this very fact will prove that there was really 
between it ai^ its church an unhappy separation. We 
will at the same time understand how, in the Irish 
legend, men belonging to the world appear so rarely, 
and never take the narrow or secondary place that they 
occupy in other legends. We will be enabled to ex- 
26* 



306 Legendary History 

plain how the Irish people profited so little by the active, 
incessant, fruitful labor going on in its church. 

A last reflection will then naturally occur to the 
mind : how explain an inveterate separation so fatal to 
the people ? Was the church guilty ? Is it excusable ? 
Must the whole responsibility rest on her ? To answer 
these questions would be to rewrite the whole history 
of Ireland ; we will put them, nor answer. To decide 
or discuss them, we have not, moreover, the necessary 
authority. 

Ireland, which did so much for other lands, did 
perhaps less for its own ; it did not entirely accom- 
plish the task assigned to it. But it is a little church, 
and among the greatest are there many that ever 
did more ? What church pursued its work unwearied, 
unceasingly, and had completed it by the twelfth 
century? For till the twelfth century only is the 
Irish church responsible, and from that period Eng- 
land must answer. What church, in fine, even in our 
days, has completed its task, realized its ideal, or even 
approached it ? To do good, all good, is not in the 
power of men or human institutions, be they even of 
divine origin ; man, too, is imperfect, yet he is of divine 
institution. To do good, all possible duty — here is 
the duty : the Irish church does good, much good ; it 
does it with ardor, heroism, perseverance ; and if it has 
forgotten itself, or been exhausted for others, those on 
whom she lavishes her power would perhaps have nei- 
ther the right nor courage to reproach it with weak- 
ness. * 

We may then admit it. In the time of St. Patrick 
and his first successors, Ireland was evangelized with 
order, and rapidly converted; then the zeal spread 



Op Ieelanb. 307 

abroad ; from tlie very depth of its monasteries and 
schools, the Irish church had its eyes turned and fixed 
on foreign shores. Its work in Ireland was suspended, 
and remained unaccomplished. The people remained 
Christian, but of the goods of religion it gathered faith 
alone. Hence doubtless it was better, but in sentiment. 

The bishops did not continue against princes the 
apostolic struggle which the saints of the first order, that 
is to say, of the first century, so courageously undertook. 
They did nought to ameliorate the laws, reform the in- 
stitutions that filled the country with trouble and woe, 
and at last, gave it up to foreign bondage. The people 
had faith to console them ; therein less unhappy per- 
haps, but therein only. 

With faith to console her, there still remained her 
imagination. It kept the memory of her saints, espe- 
cially of those of the first age ; these it had seen ; they 
had remained in Ireland ; they had thought of Ireland ; 
it had profited by their virtues, their zeal, and their 
miracles. Their time remained in her writings and in 
her memory, the golden age of her history. Amid her 
woes, she thought what the ancient church would have 
done to relieve them. Hence that inexhaustible legend, 
full of the beneficence of some, of the gratitude of oth- 
ers, and the quaint stories, the simple and popular mir- 
acles, that are repeated, untiringly multiplied, and that 
we have been unable to repeat ourselves, so popular, 
quaint, and simple are they. 

Hence, too, perhaps all the poetry of the legend, if 
indeed it will be admitted that this Irish legend is not 
without some poesy. When nations are happy, they do 
not dream of supernatural benefactors ; golden stories 
are invented in iron ages ; and the brilliant narratives, 



308 Legendary History of Ireland. 

the marvellous and ingenuoug imaginations, wliicli 
amuse the generations of better times, spring from the 
misery of past generations ; they have alleviated their 
sufferings, sweetened, sometimes at least, the bitterness 
of their thoughts. Under the poetic history of the 
saints, there is often the sad history of nations ; and 
■when in imagination we visit Ireland, visit the cabins 
where the legend was related, its most beneficent mira- 
cles, its most consoling stories, its most gladsome con- 
ceptions, have something indescribably touching and 
melancholy ; they are listened to with more sympathy 
and more indulgence. , 



ry^'' 



